Denial, anger, acceptance. When Alex Neil was on the verge of leaving Sunderland to take over at Stoke City in August, the initial reaction on Wearside was one of denial.
Neil was feted as a hero by Sunderland fans after ending the club's four-year stay in League One purgatory by leading it to promotion via the play-offs at Wembley just three months earlier. Why would he leave?
Why would he go to Stoke? Why couldn't a club like Sunderland convince him to stay?
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But leave he did. Stoke it was. And the Sunderland hierarchy could not change his mind. Denial gave way to anger.
It was a betrayal. It was all about money. The manner of his exit, on the eve of a home game against Norwich City and being pictured watching his new club at Blackburn Rovers before his departure from Sunderland had been officially confirmed, only compounded the sense of fury. And then comes acceptance.
Neil is installed at Stoke, Tony Mowbray takes charge at Sunderland and helps the club navigate the next step, turning the Championship newbies his predecessor had bequeathed into an exciting young team challenging for the play-offs. The world turns and time ticks on.
But hang on a minute. Football is an emotional, passionate, sport.
Many of those fans are not ready to let go of their anger just yet. And so it is that Neil will receive a rough ride when he returns to the Stadium of Light with Stoke tomorrow.
There is no getting away from that. But once the visceral reaction is out of the way, it will hopefully be time to take a more considered view of the last 12 months.
Because while the circumstances surrounding Neil's departure left a sour taste, it should not detract from the job he did during his time in charge. He inherited a team whose chances of promotion from League One seemed to be disappearing fast after a 6-0 humiliation at Bolton which proved to be the final straw for Lee Johnson, followed by embarrassing defeats at bottom-of-the-table Doncaster Rovers and at newly-promoted Cheltenham.
He turned the tide, losing just one of his 15 league games in charge to secure a fifth-placed finish and a play-off spot. Sheffield Wednesday were dispatched over two legs in the semi-final, before Wycombe were swept aside at Wembley in the final.
Eight points from five games was a promising start to life in the Championship before Neil moved on, and Mowbray has built on that platform. My own view is that Neil should be respected for the integral part he played in Sunderland's rise to where they are today.
Without his input last season, it is likely Sunderland would this weekend be involved in yet another League One promotion battle, rather than targeting a Championship play-off place. Football demands heroes and villains to drive the narrative; there is no room for nuance, let alone balance.
But perhaps tomorrow's game, and with it the opportunity for Sunderland fans to vent their anger, will be the point where the acceptance stage truly begins.
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