When the former Sunderland inside forward Len Shackleton wrote his autobiography he entitled one chapter: “The average director’s knowledge of football.” It comprised a blank page and ensured that, back in 1956, Clown Prince of Soccer generated plenty of headlines.
Not that the late Shackleton was either joking or deploying a cheap marketing trick. One of the finest players of his generation, the England international retained an immense scepticism about the manoeuvrings of many boardroom inhabitants and would doubtless have had something suitably caustic to say about Tony Mowbray’s shock sacking last Monday.
The much admired 60-year-old’s departure provoked widespread sadness among Sunderland’s supporters and, by all accounts, players too. After guiding a very young, frequently thrilling team to last season’s Championship playoff semi-finals and leaving them within touching distance of the playoff places, it is hard to see what he did wrong.
With the caretaker manager, Mike Dodds, adhering to Mowbray’s stylistic template this restorative win against promotion rivals West Brom not only bolsters Sunderland’s playoff hopes – this result takes them into the top six – but enhances the managerial vacancy’s attraction.
Candidates can only hope their vital statistics stack up. It seems that Kristjaan Speakman, the sporting director, and the majority owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, are obsessed with a data-led management model.
They evidently believe that a spreadsheet-led analysis will identify a bright young coach able to work miracles on a relative shoestring budget and secure entry to the Premier League’s promised land.
The current shortlist for Sunderland’s 20th manager in 21 years includes Will Still, the 31-year-old Reims manager, Julien Sablé, Nice’s assistant manager, Kim Hellberg, head coach of Sweden’s IFK Varnamo and Paul Heckingbottom, late of Sheffield United.
Louis-Dreyfus watched impassively as an extremely harsh offside decision denied Jobe Bellingham an early goal after Alex Palmer spilled Patrick Roberts’s shot. Jude’s little brother is a talented forward who spearheaded Dodds’s starting XI with invention and intelligence, keeping a visiting defence already stretched by the exciting home wingers, Jack Clarke and Roberts, on their toes.
“If you lose the ball against Sunderland they have a lot of players who can go one v one,” said Carlos Corberán, the West Brom manager. “Their wingers caused us a lot of problems.”
Dodds’s problem was that Bellingham remains much more a creator than a goalscorer and the glaring lack of the latter in Sunderland’s squad probably represents a big reason why Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman panicked.
Bar Bellingham’s disallowed effort, the closest Sunderland came to a first-half goal was after Roberts’s collapse and forlorn penalty appeal in the face of a debatable foul.
Corberán’s side were forced to reshuffle when Dan Ballard’s nasty challenge that brought a yellow card resulted in their principal forward, Josh Maja, limping off. West Brom argued, with some justification, that Ballard should have been sent off.
Ankle trouble dictated that Maja was making his first start of the season but Sunderland seemed relieved to see the back of a forward they had adored before his departure for Bordeaux four years ago.
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Suitably encouraged, Sunderland started the second half very much on the front foot. Adil Aouchiche’s first-time shot rebounded off a post before Palmer somehow repelled Clarke’s follow-up. Whether here or elsewhere, Clarke is surely Premier League-bound.
The top tier beckoned Sunderland in the 69th minute when Ballard propelled them into a deserved lead courtesy of a fabulous header following his connection with substitute Alex Pritchard’s beautifully calibrated free-kick.
Pritchard’s guile proved transformative. Tellingly, his wonderful counterattacking vision cued up Dan Neil to chip Palmer and celebrate Sunderland’s second, 85th-minute, goal. Although Brandon Thomas-Asante’s late header introduced a certain tension everything was pretty much done and dusted. “Pritchard’s come on and done everything I thought he’d do, he’s tactically really, really bright,” said Dodds. “That’s a big, big win against a really well coached team. It’s huge.”
There is quite a duel in prospect when renascent Leeds visit Wearside on Tuesday.
