Blunderland
Just what is going on at Sunderland? MAL ROBINSON tries to explain. Sunderland fanzine editor and author,
The Mackems mad recent ride
So, sum up the last 6 months or so on Wearside Mal? To put it in nutshel – organised chaos! We have had Martin O’ Neill, the fan’s preferred choice for years nearly relegating us, and in came Paolo Di Canio to a torrent of abuse from the national and international media for his links with fascism.
Paolo then won the “dirty knees derby” away at Newcastle sliding along the pitch in celebration. He then jumps in the sea after keeping Sunderland up and states that full-back Phil Bardsley will never play for the club again after a night out at the casino captured on social media with Bardsley covered in £50 notes.
In come 14 new signings, out go 15 players, tomato sauce and mayonnaise are banned from the club’s training ground. Paolo appears on the front of The Sun in a hotel fracas away at Southampton second game in. He publicly denounces players causing friction, manages one point from five league games, before being sent off against Arsenal and confronting the fans at West Brom (the day before he was fired) on
the pitch, finally ending in a mutiny from the Sunderland players who ran to the board to demand Paolo be sacked…oh and Di Canio managed to star in a AC Milan legends team at Newcastle, scoring the penultimate penalty in a successful shoot-out for the Italians. Just your average run of the mill stuff to be honest!
Now we welcome Gus Poyet on board. So it seems the pundits were correct about Paolo…a mad Italian? To be fair, Sunderland sitting at the bottom of the Premier League after five games was not entirely Di Canio’s fault. Everything he has done has been either misinterpreted by the Press, or dressed up as something it
wasn’t. For instance when Paolo came onto the pitch after the West Brom defeat he was apparently ‘confronting’ the fans. However, when you analyse his actions and speaking to Italian journalists, the gesticulating of the finger under the chin means, ‘to shoot oneself’ as in it’s my fault, I am to blame. I suppose looking back it could also be interpreted as ‘keep your chin up’.
Paolo always liked to play on the ‘mad Italian’ persona, but in reality he is a very clever, astute football coach. However, his discipline methods and man management have to be questioned. Perhaps he felt he could control Premier League players in the same way he had ruled the roost over Swindon players in his previous job? Whether that is wrong on the part of Di Canio or wrong on the part of pampered prima donna top-flight stars is open to debate.
Paolo was applauded off the field by Sunderland fans after the match with Arsenal the week before his sacking, after he had come back onto the field following his sending off by Martin Atkinson. That was only a week before the West Brom showing.