COLEMAN: ‘PLAYERS HAVE TO TAKE IT TO THE MAX’
PLUS: BROWNING KO – DEFENSIVE CRISIS DEEPENS
Sunderland boss Chris Coleman admits there are question marks over the long-term future of the club, but he insists his own future is not a concern.
The Welshman admitted earlier in the year that he has yet to speak to Ellis Short, with the owner effectively handing over the day-to-day running of the club to chief executive Martin Bain.
Short officially took the club off the market last summer, but, following the sacking of Simon Grayson, he told fans via safc.com that he would consider any viable offer.
Investment in the playing squad has been minimal and, with Sunderland struggling to beat the Championship drop, supporters have pondered whether Coleman would manage in League One or indeed whether he would continue in any league Short does not sell.
Coleman admitted that there are many variables, but, having said in the recent past that he hopes to stay at the club ‘for some time’, he vowed to fight first and foremost for the immediate future of the side.
He said: “I signed a twoand-a-half year contract – this season and two more.
“People always say that if you’re not winning then your job will be under threat anyway and they haven’t won in eight games. That’s the industry.
“Or people say will he want to stay if they get relegated? Will Sunderland want to keep him?
“Who is going to own the club? That’s my biggest thing after making sure we stay in this league.
“Who are we going to build the club with? Nobody knows.
“There are a lot of questions.
“But my focus is on QPR (tomorrow), getting us into a situation where we have a positive frame of mind as we continue this relegation fight, and we do that by getting a win. “That’s my sole focus.” Coleman admitted that the uncertainty had made his job tougher, but said he could alleviate much of the negativity with positive results before the end of the season.
He added that we would not offer any excuses or tolerate them from his players.
“It is the uncertainty, the not knowing, that can create a lot of anger. Why is the club in this mess? Add the team not performing, only winning five games all season, a club of this size...It has so much going for it, it really does, but it is all about results on the pitch,” he said.
“That can cover some many sins, I promise you. That’s just football.
“For us, we’re not getting results on the pitch and off the pitch a lot is up in the air, so it is messy, it is disturbing for supporters and negative.
“Honestly though, a good performance, three points, that can give people hope for the next game.
“We can only get people optimistic when we win. The other problems are out of our hand. They’ll have to take care of ourselves, we have to look after the football and we haven’t done that enough.
“We have to focus on that. If that goes OK, we can create a good vibe.
“I was worried about the [season-ending] injury [to Tyias Browning] because it’s that, ‘we’ll never be right, it is Sunderland’s time, another injury’. You have to stay away from that because you can use them as excuses and we can’t have a single one of those.
“You’ve just to got to suck it up, shut up, get on with the job. What’s coming is coming. Choose your way of dealing with it.
“I was lower than a snake’s belly on Tuesday, but I’ll be ready on Saturday, I promise you.”
12 Sunderland have won 12 of their 33 league matches against QPR, going back to the first meeting in 1968-69. QPR have won 13 times, with eight draws.