CATS BID TO COPY CUNNING CANARIES
WEARSIDE may scarcely resemble the Wash, but Lee Johnson says Sunderland can become the Norwich City of the north.
When Johnson was sacked by Bristol City last July, after a run of four defeats had crushed the Robins’ play-off hopes, the 39-year-old made a beeline for Carrow Road.
“Norwich were one of a few clubs who were very kind while I was out of work,” explains the former Oldham and Barnsley manager.
“They called me up and invited me in, even though I didn’t know any of the guys there. It was very thoughtful of them to reach out and do that.
Phenomenal
“I managed to spend a couple of days watching them work at close quarters. I really enjoyed it, learned a lot, and they deserve every bit of the success they’re getting. It’s been a phenomenal season.”
Indeed it has. Prior to the weekend’s fixtures, Daniel Farke’s side needed just two points to complete an instant return to the Premier League. Promotion - and the title - have looked inevitable since day one.
Theirs is what Johnson calls a ‘top down’ success; a philosophy wrought in the boardroom, translated by a head coach - not a manager - and enacted by players cognisant of the broader strategy.
“Here at Sunderland, we’ll obviously do it in our own way,” he explains.
“But there are big pieces of the jigsaw that you can take from clubs like Norwich.
“Because they’re a great example, probably in my personal top three of the best-run clubs outside the Premier League. Why wouldn’t you want to emulate that?
“You’ve got solid ownership with very good people in charge in Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn-Jones. I think Stuart Webber is a top, top level sporting director or CEO. They’ve got a really good manager and recruitment team, quality players. It’s such a well-oiled machine that success is basically inevitable.”
You can’t say the same about Sunderland. Under the ownership of Ellis Short, the Black Cats plummeted from the Premier League to League One amid a maelstrom of expedience, wastefulness and outright neglect. Successor Stewart Donald barely had the funds to ensure survival,
We’ll do our own things in way,butthereare of the big pieces can take jigsaw you like from clubs Norwich Johnson
Lee
let alone concoct a strategy.
Now, for the first time in a decade, hope has displaced crushing despair. In February, the club was bought by 24-year-old Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the heir to a multi-billion pound fortune whose mother, Julia, is estimated to be the wealthiest Russian woman on the planet. His late father, Robert, was the CEO of Adidas and the owner of French giants Olympique Marseille.
Before the takeover was even rubber stamped, Louis-Dreyfus deployed his wealth to kick-start Sunderland’s modernisation.
Investment
Kristjaan Speakman arrived as sporting director in early December after two decades at Birmingham and immediately hired Johnson. Stuart Harvey was headhunted from Blackburn to lead recruitment. A data department sprang forth.
“Money is being spent well,” says Johnson. “Investment is being put in the right place. And there’s a consistency to the whole approach on a daily basis.
“As I said about Norwich, it always starts from the top, doesn’t it? I’m talking about the ownership, and the messages that come out from the owners set the agenda.
“As the head coach, you’ve got to be a disciple of those messages and hope that everybody else is aligned. If you are, it works really well. If you’re not, you won’t last very long.
“Luckily I was able to do my research and I knew that we’d be very aligned. Hopefully that can accelerate the process.”
Even allowing for the two defeats pre-weekend that have derailed Sunderland’s bid for automatic promotion to the Championship, that acceleration is evident. Johnson lost just five of his first 31 games in charge and reinvigorated the likes of Aiden McGeady and Charlie Wyke.
“Funnily enough, I actually think we could have
I believe in my philosophy. I believe in the way this club is going. And I believe we’ll get where we want to be
Lee Johnson
progressed more quickly,” laments Johnson, who also led the Black Cats to Papa John’s Trophy final success at Wembley last month. “The covid situation set us back massively.
“From that Lincoln game (Johnson’s second in charge) where we won 4-0 and put in a really good performance, we were knocked back by the lack of training time.
Important
“Sometimes players are like goldfish. They forget things very quickly, and it’s repetition which becomes the most important thing. It did hurt us.
“Since then we’ve been on a decent run which is nice. But, at the same time, we’ve got megabucks of improvement ahead.
“It’s a big job. The whole club needs to be driven forward. I’m a small part of that, and a lot of people need to put in a lot of hard work to take us where we need to be.”
At 5ft 6ins, Johnson has always been a small part. But it never stopped him making a big noise on the pitch.
Partly that was down to his spiky persona; what Johnson lacked in physicality he made up for in psychology with opponents often driven to distraction by his mid-match sledging.
Is it a coincidence that his presence coincided with a brawl in the tunnel during a recent 3-1 victory over
Oxford that resulted in the police being called to the Stadium of Light?
Johnson couldn’t possibly say but, after years of pitiful resistance and meek surrender, Sunderland supporters were delighted to see their players showing some fight.
“In any family - and football is an extended family - you need to stick up for each other,” says Johnson. “That can surface in a number of ways. It might be to support and talk, to discuss issues and life problems. At other times, you need to stand up and be counted, whether that’s on the pitch or off it. That’s the first port of call - a mentality that we are together.
Together
“Removing ourselves from that specific situation, it’s all about trust. On the pitch, it’s ever so important that you’ve got the trust and the honesty to be able to call your mate out, to be aggressive and know someone’s got your back, to be able to hold your hands up and say you’ve made a mistake. “At Yeovil, I played in midfield with Darren Way. He was a cheeky little git, and he hated losing. I was the same. We could come to blows playing five-a-side in training. But that same night we’d go round to dinner at each other’s house and have a laugh about how competitive we were. And on the pitch, we’d defend each other to the hilt.
“That openness, that honesty and that spirit was the bedrock of our success and it was the same in all the teams I’ve been successful in.”
Success this season would be promotion but, in keeping with the club’s new ethos, Johnson says the bigger picture is more important.
“Whatever competition we’re in, we’ll compete and compete hard because we want to give these fans something to be proud of,” he says. “But any short-term disappointment shouldn’t stop the way the club moves forward. I believe in my philosophy. I believe in the way this club is going. And I believe we’ll get where we want to be.”