CHRIS IN URGENT NEED OF BOARD BACKING
IT IS barely a year since Chris Coleman led Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016. If you’d told me then he’d soon be managing Sunderland at the bottom of the Championship, I’d have thought you deluded.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and nobody can blame Chris for trying to reach a World Cup. But, if he’d bowed out after the Euros, he’d have been wanted by top clubs across Europe and the Premier League.
Nevertheless, I refuse to believe he couldn’t have commanded a better job than Sunderland. I am flabbergasted he’s taken that on.
Everyone knows the problems there go deeper than any manager. Debts, reluctant owners, pitiful transfer budgets. They’re mid-table at best.
Yes, they can find the net, but their defence is leakier than a handful of water. Simon Grayson got £1.5m to improve things and it was nowhere near enough. You’d struggle in League Two on that budget.
The only reason I can imagine why Coleman would have signed is that he’s been guaranteed control over transfers and given a minimum of £15m to spend in January.
Loans and hidden gems aren’t enough. They need two £4m defenders and a Britt Assombalonga-style player who’ll dig them out of this hole. And nobody like that is going to come unless you hand them a wedge.
If Chris has those assurances, I can understand him taking a gamble. If not, he’s on a hiding to nothing.