Our second rant comes from Daniel Lewis.

I don’t usually respond to things like this, but think that there is another angle to our situation at the moment which the “Poyet Out” crowd have overlooked… which all begins in October 2011 when Ellis Short makes a decision not to look for a successor to the departing Niall Quinn as Chairman, instead assuming the role himself.  From then on we have stumbled from manager-to-manager, philosophy-to-philosophy, desperate for a sense of direction, purpose, and stability.

Seeking a philosophy, and direction is absolutely the way to shape the club moving forwards, however with the DoF system this should come from a proper Chairman – who uses the tactical expertise of a manager who’s style suits the squad based on their own football vision for the club (notice not business or financial, which will be a by-product of doing this properly).  We have all seen the success a “shot-in-the-arm” managerial change can have, however as long as we have a businessman making football decisions, we are destined to re-live this painful cycle every year. You wouldn’t let Pep Guardiola run an Investment Bank, so why is Ellis Short making footballing decisions?

When we hired Gus, he came with the short-term view of pulling off a miracle, which he achieved, and the long term view of re-designing the club’s style and philosophy – something which we’ve all been harking for.  However how much support has he received from Short, both from a financial and a directional view-point?

At our core, the stalwarts of our squad are grafters – it feels like John O’Shea, Web Brown, Lee Cattermole, Seb Larsson & co. have been around forever – and you would have to ask, how many of these guys are suited to a possession-based game? None. So which manager shall we hire? The stubborn, possession obsessed Poyet, who has no plan B…

This isn’t a criticism of Poyet, who’s vision I admire and would love to see properly implemented at Sunderland, however why bring him on board when you know that you’re not going to allow him to build his own squad?  If, the decision to hire Poyet was filtered down from a Chairman who has the same ideas as Poyet, who can cajole Short into spending on certain players and who can break down a long-term goal into stepping-stones, applying achievable short-term “stepping-stone” objectives to help the club get to where they need to be… If this person existed, I’m sure we wouldn’t be where we are now.  We have a long term idea of where we want to be as a club, but does anyone know how we’re getting there?

For the record, I like Poyet however I feel that he has run his race and as a club we have no option but to seek another adrenaline shot to see us through to the end of the season… but forget about Borini and Ki next summer… our most important signing will be a proper football-focused Chairman who can take the reins and steady the ship. Or failing that just hire Allardyce so that we can sack him after Xmas and have this lovely conversation all over again. All that’s missing from this story is Bill Murray.

Daniel Lewis