SUNDERLAND: MIKE DODDS CLAIMS COME TO LIGHT AMID REASON BEHIND MICK BEALE APPOINTMENT
Michael Beale’s time as Sunderland head coach has come to an end, and the real reason why he was given the job in the first place has now bbeenevealed.
The former Queens Park Rangers, and Rangers, manager was relieved of his
duties yesterday afternoon. There were a culmination of red flags that led to his
eventual departure, including spats with the fans, and refusing a handshake from
Trai Hume after he was brought off against Birmingham City last weekend.
Beale didn’t impress people with the team’s on-field performances. If
anything, they went backwards. When current Birmingham manager Tony
Mowbray was in charge, they were an effervescent and fun to watch side. Beale’s mission to make them more
defensively solid worked at times, but it sucked the life out of the attacking side of the team.
Beale ended up being the shortest reigning manager in Sunderland’s
history, and, now that the reasons why he was given the job have been revealed,
it’s clear to see that this partnership was always going to struggle to work out.
The reason why Michael Beale was given Sunderland manager job
While Mowbray’s results weren’t spectacular, there were indications that
they were at least moving in that direction. However, the club let him go
because of the deteriorating relationship between him and some people in the boardroom
Beale was not the first choice option, as per the Sunderland Echo. They said that
the club were looking abroad for their next boss. But, after identifying the
person that they wanted, they realised that the hurdles that they would have to
get over in order to get them to the Stadium of Light made the task
impossible. The Echo added that this immediately made almost
everythingabout getting rid of Mowbray an odd decision, as they didn’t have their perfect option lined up and ready to go.
The choice came down to Beale, who had reportedly impressed in the interview
stage of the process, and giving the job to Mike Dodds on an interim basis until the
end of the season; a role which he has had to take on now. The club felt that it
would have been too soon to give the post to Dodds, according to the Echo.
They didn’t want things to go badly, and then lose someone that they saw as a long-term asset.
So the decision was made that they would go with Beale. The hopes of those
within the club, as per the Echo, would be that the structure already in place at
the Stadium of Light, and the former QPR manager’s coaching abilities, would
be enough to make up for the areas that he struggled in at Loftus Road and at the
Ibrox Stadium. That didn’t end up being the case.
Beale’s time with Sunderland reflects badly on Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman
At the time of Mowbray’s sacking, Sunderland were ninth in the table, and
just three points off the play-off places. Considering that none of their strikers
had scored a goal up until that point of the season, with 19 Championship games played, that’s not too bad.
If Sunderland were in the position that a team like Birmingham were in, then
getting rid of Mowbray, and not being sure of your exact plan going forward,
would have been understandable. That wasn’t the case though. To justify a
switch of this nature – to get rid of a manager who just had you in the play-
offs, and had you in a decent position to do so again – they needed to have a
water-tight succession plan in place, and they didn’t.
The fact that Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman, who said that the club took
“full accountability,” for the lack of improvements on the pitch, initially
thought of giving the role to Dodds over Beale should have told them everything
they needed to know about this appointment, and it will cast some doubt
among Sunderland fans about what sporting direction the club is going in.
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