Black Cats Aiming High as Hughes Lacks Spark

Martin O’Neill is back! The great man manager from Northern Ireland has returned to top flight management after almost a year out. It appears that O’Neill has agreed to take over as manager of struggling Sunderland after Steve Bruce’s sacking earlier this week. Mark Hughes will have to continue to wait in the cold for a club willing to put their trust in his unreliability after being snubbed by Niall Quinn and Elliot Short. The decision to appoint O’Neill instead of Hughes is a drastic choice but one that shows clear intention that the club want to turn their fortunes around whilst playing attractive and entertaining football.

As well as possessing an impressive managerial CV, O’Neill also played under one of the greatest managers football has ever known. O’Neill was in Brian Clough’s European Cup winning Nottingham Forrest side and has carried traits from the great late ‘Cloughie’ into his own style of management.

In his three seasons with Aston Villa, Martin O’Neill created an attacking team full of flair and dynamism who were strong challengers for a top four finish.

With their recent form a shadow of the type that was installed by O’Neill, Villa’s Chairman Doug Ellis, must be rueing his decision to not provide O’Neill with the funds he craved, allowing the Irishman to leave so willingly.

Recent newspaper and television reports on the appointment at Sunderland have highlighted the importance of funds if O’Neill was to sign a contract. Sunderland Chairman, Ellis Short, could have spent less on recruiting Hughes but would have had to settle for a team playing average football and competing for an average league position. Yet, by reaching a little deeper into his pockets, European qualification is now a strong possibility for the coming seasons as well as an increase in ticket sales.

Having only picked up six points from a possible 24 in their last eight games, including just one win, there has been a dramatic drop in ticket sales and the Stadium of Light has been alarmingly empty. Having lost the faith of the supporters, it was only a matter of time until Bruce lost the faith of his employers and was put out of his misery.

Many sceptics have blamed the fall of Sunderland on Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan, after they left the club in controversial circumstances. However, after losing Bent to Martin O’Neill’s old club Aston Villa and once Gyan had decided that the size of his wallet was more important than the size of his fan base, Steve Bruce had time to recruit replacements but could only bring in ineffective and unproven strikers. Nicklas Bendtner has often failed to match his own high demands and looks out of his depth playing in this league, whereas Connor Wickham is one for the future and needs time.

With a squad rich in depth in other areas and having been promised funds to strengthen the team in January, Sunderland should prove the perfect catalyst for O’Neill to mark his triumphant return.

By James Hughes