The Martin O'Neill thread (with added sacking #2188)

[PeterWithesShin]

Potential downside is it may cause a siege mentality up there and have them fighting tooth and nail. Potential upside is the circus that goes with The Fascist may cause them to implode even more.

O Neill was supposed to be the motivator , if he couldn't get anything from them then di canio could find it even harder with his strongarm approach . Could get. A reaction like cloughie did when he went to Leeds hopefully !

MON looked a shadow of himself the last few months. His one strength was his motivational skills but they seem to have gone leaving him with pretty much nothing to offer a club.

[ozzjim]

I think Di Canio will keep them up personally. It is a massive blow to us that they changed manager, but I would not want him over Lambert in a decade of Sundays.

[eastie]

Potential downside is it may cause a siege mentality up there and have them fighting tooth and nail. Potential upside is the circus that goes with The Fascist may cause them to implode even more.

O Neill was supposed to be the motivator , if he couldn't get anything from them then di canio could find it even harder with his strongarm approach . Could get. A reaction like cloughie did when he went to Leeds hopefully !

The two situations are not really comparable. Clough took over when Leeds were at their peak, Sunderland are in a mess.

The more I think about it with O'Neill, I'd say that in the years since he first joined us PL football has changed massively but he tried to stick to his tried and trusted methods and it hasn't worked.

The problem I have is that things have gone too far the other way and I'm not sure I like the new, non-contact, version that much, but I'm just a fan so what I say doesn't matter in the scheme of things.

I'm aware of the situations being different  as regards ability but it could be if di canio rubs players up the wrong way and upsets them they may resent him and put in minimal effort hopefully.

If he has a positive affect and gets the best out of them then its bad news for us.

[supertom]

I think Di Canio will have his players totally fired up against us. He'll want revenge after we knocked Swindon out earlier this season. That's a worry.

I don't like the uncertainty now. It could go either way. Sunderland were looking like a limp dog in need of shooting under O Neill. It would have been a game we'd have fancied winning and rubbing pube-heads face in it.

If there's one thing you could say about PDC, is that he's incredibly strong willed and self confident. He'll want to ram any doubts down the doubters throats and he'll also want to prove himself to be a quality top flight manager. You could of course say that about many failed top flight managers over the years (Keane), but there's gonna be few who'll be as determined to be the mutts nuts as PDC. Whether that is enough to make Sunderland a solid side, and survive, remains to be seen. But PDC has will to win in abundance. If it works then we could suffer as a consequence because Wigan and Soton are both looking reasonable at the minute. And we are under the red line at the moment.

[Ger Regan]

I think Di Canio will have his players totally fired up against us. He'll want revenge after we knocked Swindon out earlier this season. That's a worry.

I don't like the uncertainty now. It could go either way. Sunderland were looking like a limp dog in need of shooting under O Neill. It would have been a game we'd have fancied winning and rubbing pube-heads face in it.

If there's one thing you could say about PDC, is that he's incredibly strong willed and self confident. He'll want to ram any doubts down the doubters throats and he'll also want to prove himself to be a quality top flight manager. You could of course say that about many failed top flight managers over the years (Keane), but there's gonna be few who'll be as determined to be the mutts nuts as PDC. Whether that is enough to make Sunderland a solid side, and survive, remains to be seen. But PDC has will to win in abundance. If it works then we could suffer as a consequence because Wigan and Soton are both looking reasonable at the minute. And we are under the red line at the moment.

From my understanding, Di Canio brought in a hell of a lot of players at Swindon, rather than really improving players that were already at the club (I'm happy to be corrected on that though). It's hard to know what effect he'll have on the current sunderland squad, he fell out with a few in the swindon squad, and with no transfer window available to him, that could prove costly this season.

[olaftab]

I think Di Canio will keep them up personally. It is a massive blow to us that they changed manager, but I would not want him over Lambert in a decade of Sundays.

I don't think he will and there is no evidence to think otherwise.

[dave.woodhall]

I think Di Canio will have his players totally fired up against us. He'll want revenge after we knocked Swindon out earlier this season. That's a worry.

If that was the case nobody would ever want to win a cup tie ever again.

[olaftab]

Well what I read on the Sunderland forums was he must have known a month or so ago that he was off to NY. Why didn't he resign then. He was right to resign though. I just feel sorry for the fans, by and large they seem decent folk.

He didn't need to reign just because he was appointed to a job based in NewYork just as our Chairman and some directors don't need to do that simply because they are not UK based. He can still attend once in a month board meetings etc.

[olaftab]

I think Di Canio will have his players totally fired up against us. He'll want revenge after we knocked Swindon out earlier this season. That's a worry.

If that was the case nobody would ever want to win a cup tie ever again.

That really is from the bottom draw of a football supporter's dark thoughts. Unbelievable conjuncture!

[damon loves JT]

That's a suspiciously precise wording in Di Canio's tweet.

'I did not murder my wife, or any of her friends, on a Thursday'

[Fernando Partridge]

MON would perhaps be galvanized once again back @ leicester makes sense as Pearson really messing up there promotion chances.

[damon loves JT]

Steve Rose is spot on about Miliband being a classic O'Neill signing. Overpriced British underachiever, rarely makes an appearance, and nobody notices him until he's off the wage bill

[not3bad]

Sunderland are bound to get a bounce, and their next match is against Chelsea, a team who seem very keen to be generous to all the teams around us.

[ozzjim]

Benitez seems hell bent on relegating Villa doesn't he.

[DB]

Funny there wasn't any brewhaha when he was ar Swindon.... Lower league footy doesn't matter.

How many times does this need to be pointed out? There was opposition from the people that matter, those with links to the club and some fans. I remember it distinctly. The same sort of people have raised concern at SAFC but this time, because it is the PL, the press are heavily reporting this. The principle remains the same.

So essentially, we are agreeing.