Sunderland’s revolting players and Di Canio’s sacking – What’s the real picture?

The last of a dying breed of thorough professionals?

Interestingly, many Sunderland supporters have declared their surprise at the sacking as the manager still had some kudos from masterminding a win over Newcastle. One hopes the board truly understands what this means to a Mackam.

Di Canio is alleged to have told the players if they want to complain to the board then he would lose his job, although it seems more likely he was illustrating this as an option open to a player who doesn’t really want to improve and he could get Di Canio sacked but then the player would still be a player who isn’t playing very well, and so what had they really achieved? Di Canio could well have been under some sort of review, but that is not the story being put out by the board.

But as I said, the days of players respecting their positions seems to have changed. It is likely that players such as Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are the last of the generation who would talk about the pride they had in cleaning the boots of First Team players and how they were in awe of them. It seems managers have to manage players much like modern parents feel they have to bring up their children, by a process of negotiation. But as with children, how can you negotiate with someone who doesn’t understand reason or the big picture?

How can you negotiate with someone who is constantly told how good they are, beyond any semblance of reality to the point they will not accept anything other than a first team place? Di Canio may end up as one of a long line of great players who never made it in management. It is ironic that the only member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning side who ever gained any success in management, was the least talented player – Jack Charlton.

One last point I’d like to make is about the press coverage of the Di Canio incident. There are two aspects, which I believe to be completely irrelevant to the whole argument, which creep into many correspondents’ views.

Firstly, that Di Canio has fascist views and the other is the Chief Executive of Sunderland is a woman. If you read back many articles you eventually see one or both of these aspects highlighted as if it justifies the actions taken, or maybe fuels the authors own prejudice. It’s a subject for another article, but you can also level that criticism at the coverage of the Blackburn owners as a female is involved in those decisions too.

One thing is certain, though, Paolo Di Canio will always make headlines and polarize opinion. Time will tell whether this has been the best outcome for the club, but the players should be under severe scrutiny as supporters will have every right to expect a vast improvement in their performance if it really was the Italian who was holding them back.

Published in permission with Frankly Mr Spencer