SHAKE IT OFF
The first two series of Sunderland ‘Til I Die were epic. Car-crash documentary television at its finest, full of real-life characters with self-awareness levels so low they would put Alan Partridge or Richard Keys to shame [EDM continues]. But as every footy-doc fan now knows, it’s never as good when the team is winning. Try watching five minutes of the ultra-drab Amazon All Or Nothing Manchester City documentary without dozing off and you’ll see the difference. Sunderland ‘Til I Die’s genius was in its frightening lack of PR airbrushing, allowing the audience the popcorn-eating pleasure of sitting back and watching things go calamitously wrong, like Dad’s Army for real. “We needed a series three to see Sunderland winning,” declared the show’s producer Gabe Turner upon the release of this latest batch of episodes, which chart the club’s successful 2021-22 season in League One. Really? Well … perhaps Sunderland fans needed that pay-off after the endless taunts from rivals up and down the country as a result of the first two series.
Football moves fast though, especially in the Championship circus, so even Sunderland’s 2022 apex now seems an age ago. Alex Neil who? He was gone from the Stadium of Light just three months after winning promotion, lured by the bright lights of Stoke City (how did that go, by the way?), since which time the Black Cats have helter-skeltered through another two permanent managers: Tony Mowbray – whose sacking in December last year is increasingly hard to compute – and Michael Beale, who lasted 12 games before disembarking through those red and white revolving doors marked Do One.
The final straw for some seemed to be Beale’s treatment of full-back Trai Hume, who had offered his manager a handshake after being substituted in the defeat at Mowbray’s Birmingham, only to be snubbed. Beale went into full Arsène Wenger mode afterwards and claimed he “didn’t see” Hume, despite Hume being a grown man of 6ft in height standing a yard away from him in a red-and-white kit. Someone give Specsavers a call. It didn’t wash with Wearsiders and Beale was gone 48 hours later.
The unspoken problem with the Championship is there are simply too many clubs expecting success. At least 20 begin the season with aims of reaching the playoffs or better and most end up disappointed. When parachute payments expire, as they have for Cardiff, Swansea, Huddersfield and Stoke – all languishing in the lower reaches – those dreams of a Premier League return turn into flights of fancy. But with 19 of the current second-tier clubs having tasted the top flight’s riches at one stage or another, fans craving a return to the big time is totally understandable, but also unsustainable. So here we are in February. Leicester, Leeds and Southampton – with their big budgets and Premier League-ready squads – are only a minor Ipswich slowdown from an unstoppable charge straight back to the top tier. And there Sunderland are, 10th in the table, having just given it to Mike Dodds ‘til the end of the season.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Bryan Graham at 7.30pm GMT for updates on Manchester City 4-1 Brentford, while Scott Murray and Rob Smyth will be on Big Cup duty for Inter 2-1 Atlético and PSV 2-2 Dortmund, respectively.
ANDREAS BREHME (1960-2024)
The football world has paid tribute to World Cup winner Andreas Brehme, who has died at the age of 63. The former West Germany defender scored the winning penalty in the Italia 90 final to bring a third world title back to his homeland. The gifted left-back was perhaps best-known for his spell at Inter, where he won the Serie A title and Uefa Cup in his four seasons there. Inter players will wear black armbands against Atlético in honour of the German, who was a set piece specialist in his time at San Siro. “A magnificent player, a great Inter fan. Ciao Andy, forever [a] legend,” said the club in a statement. Another former club, Kaiserslautern, who he also managed, added: “He wore the Red Devils’ shirt for a total of 10 years and became German champion and German Cup winner with FCK. In 1990 he fired the German national team to the World Cup title with his penalty and became a football legend.” RIP, Andreas.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“How could I be a flop when I only played 12 matches and not all of them from the start? And not in my position, either? Oh well, that’s the football world, you know” – PSV’s Luuk de Jong laughs off suggestions in British tabloids that he’s right up there among the worst Premier League strikers after his struggles at Newcastle a decade ago. Read the full interview with him here.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Andreas Brehme’s death adds to the list of glorious footballers that we have lost in recent times. He personified Germany – tenacity, skill, ice-cool nerves and those flowing locks that one would kill for. Auf wiedersehen” – Krishna Moorthy.
I have a suspicion that the people lobbing tennis balls on to the pitch at recent German league matches are, in fact, closet fans of the former Bundesliga (regrettably now sixth-tier) team Tennis Borussia Berlin. Expect them to continue kicking up a stink and causing a racket by unleashing thousand of table tennis balls since the club was originally founded in 1902 as Berliner-Tennis-und Ping-Pong-Gesellschaft Borussia” – Adrian Irving.
Re: yesterdays Football Daily. At this stage, the short-suffering Manchester United fans would kill to return to the glory days of hit-and-miss signings. These days, the grim predictability of new recruits struggling to find their feet at Old Trafford – or indeed in any other stadium – has taken the shine off surely the best part of the season: the transfer merry-go-round” – Warrick Brown.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Krishna Moorthy.
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