After Sunderland’s heavy defeat at the hands of West Brom, many people saw the axe getting ready to fall on the hot headed Italian. The former West Ham player had already caused himself a lot of negative press by calling out key players who he felt hadn’t stepped up for the club this season. To make matters worse, the rumour mill had already started that he would be gone within a week and a replacement had been found.
Sunderland started the season with what should have been a fairly easy run. Home games against Fulham and Arsenal resulted in two defeats, and away games against West Brom, Southampton and Palace which have only coughed up 1 point.
Perhaps the board, who should take on some of the blame for his appointment in the first place, needed to give him more time.
Caretaker Manager Kevin Ball was in charge of the side that lost at home to Liverpool and now this leaves three very difficult games, two at home against Man Utd and local rivals Newcastle and Swansea away. It is very possible that they may not even get a point in these games. This would leave them sitting rooted to the bottom of the table with 1 point out of a possible 27.
Leaving Paolo Di Canio in for these games may not have resulted in any wins or even points, but it is very possible that Kevin Ball or highly tipped replacement for Di Canio, Gus Poyet may also get the same number of points out of these games. If Ball or Poyet gets the role then it makes life a lot harder for them to get through these games without the confidence dropping even more and having the fans on their back.
It doesn’t get any easier for Sunderland after that, with the next six games seeing the club going away to Hull, Stoke and Villa, and hosting Man City, Chelsea and Spurs.
Many people thought the appointment of Di Canio was a surprise, and that the Sunderland management team who appointed him didn’t do their due diligence. Many would even say that if they had left Martin O’Neill in charge they would have still stayed up. The poor decision to hire the Italian has come back to cost them a significant amount of money and now the knee jerk firing of him may put the new manager behind the eight ball before he even gets in the hot seat.
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