Weak Black Cats put Simon in right pickle
TT THE start of August, I said Sunderland would be bang average. Now? I think that’s too generous. The Black Cats are in a relegation battle.
One win in ten games. Six defeats in the last seven. A solitary point at home. How can you say anything else?
I feel for Simon Grayson, who is an excellent manager. The squad that came down was ageing and lacked ability. He lost Jordan Pickford and Jermaine Defoe while Fabio Borini and Adnan Januzaj left.
A little bit of Premier League quality goes a long way in the Championship and Sunderland didn’t keep any. There wasn’t really anything to work with.
Simon was relying on the transfer market to freshen things up but wasn’t given any of the Pickford money, or Defoe’s wages. What did he spend, a couple of million? He needed ten times that.
Niggles
Now he’s stuck with a weak squad that is used to losing and, as we know from Darron Gibson’s comments, full of bad eggs. When you’re losing, that’s a recipe for disaster.
I’ve been in dressing rooms when things aren’t going well and it’s horrible. The smallest niggles get exaggerated. You nitpick at everything. You’re on each other about mistakes. It’s frightening how it escalates.
Someone’s ten minutes late for the bus. The food’s not good enough. Is that the reason things aren’t going well?
You look at a player and think ‘Is he doing enough?’. Last year he was doing extra sessions after training. Now he’s not.
Are some people turning up late for training? Monday morning, somebody’s looking rough. Have they been out on the razzle Sunday night?
When you’re winning, all that stuff is completely ignored. When you’re not, it riddles the club like a cancer.
It’s the same on the pitch. If you know a player hasn’t bothered in training and he’s up front on a Saturday afternoon, you’re thinking ‘I know for a fact he’s not going to run. I know for a fact he’s going to moan about every ball not to feet’. Then you think twice before hitting him.
You see this stuff going on and, almost subconsciously, your own standards drop. That’s why it takes just two or three bad eggs to shred morale.
Managers know it’s happening, but what can they do?
Gone are the days when you could stick a shirker in the reserves and let him rot. They’re paid too much. And, if a youngster’s too big for his boots, you can’t give him a load of verbals without him crying to his agent.
That’s why players have to take personal responsibility. Look in the mirror and say ‘Am I doing enough? Am I doing the best I can on a Saturday to help the club and my manager?’
And nine times out of ten in those situations – if you’re really honest with yourself – you’re not.
Of course, that’s not the only issue. For me, there’s no recognised goal threat. James Vaughan did great at Bury, but is he still a Championship player? I don’t think so. Lewis Grabban has scored at this level but not prolifically. That’s putting tremendous pressure on the back four.
Confidence is shot. If you’re a Sunderland player pulling up to the stadium, you’re sitting on the bus thinking ‘Let’s not get a hiding’. If you’re on the Cardiff bus, you’re thinking ‘Wolves at home? We can do them’.
Then there’s five years of upheaval and instability.
Like Sunderland, Ipswich haven’t got a squad that screams ‘top six’. They aren’t loaded. But they’ve had the same manager for five years and a settled squad. That’s why they are in the top six.
At the moment, I honestly can’t see any positives. All Simon can do is battle on, try to stay up and hope he’s given the funds to start afresh. It’s a really tough job.