High fences, security cameras, razor wire and gatehouse vehicle checks: modern Premier League training grounds often seem more like military installations than offshoots of the entertainment industry. If some of the protection and privacy is necessary, many clubs embrace effective “lockdown mode” a little too enthusiastically and David Moyes is suitably concerned about the resultant disconnect between players, supporters and reporters.
It explains why, this week, Sunderland’s manager threw open the doors of his club’s magnificently appointed, if slightly windy, training HQ and offered journalists rare “access all areas”. Managers in charge of struggling clubs – and Sunderland are bottom of the table, with no Premier League wins and only two points this season – traditionally adopt siege mentalities but defying convention, Moyes allowed his guests to watch an entire training session as he prepared for Saturday’s fixture at Stoke City.
The manager became happily accustomed to staging daily “open training” during his time coaching Real Sociedad in La Liga, and Jermain Defoe is similarly familiar with the concept. The former England striker certainly had no inhibitions about showing off his extraordinary finishing ability – crowned by one particularly acrobatic volley – to an enlarged audience.
“It made a difference, in a good way,” Defoe said. “It was good for the young lads, having people watch lifts players. They do it all the time in Canada and America, in MLS. When I played for Toronto, reporters talk to you in the changing room. You step out of the shower and there’s a couple of women there.”
That may be one step too far for Sunderland but a fully clothed Defoe duly seized an opportunity to challenge the north-east’s often deceptively unflattering image. Back in August Moyes – the club’s seventh manager in five years – was shocked when several leading British players including Joe Hart, Jack Wilshere and Ryan Mason rejected mooted moves to Wearside. Despite a recent history studded with near constant 11th-hour relegation escapes, he still cannot quite believe that Sunderland’s regular, fanatical, 40,000‑plus crowds, top‑drawer infrastructure and illustrious past counted for nothing.
“I’m a real London boy but I’ve loved living up here,” Defoe said. “I’ve enjoyed it and embraced it. It’s a nice area. The only difference is that’s it’s colder. Everything else is just an excuse and if you love football, you can’t make excuses.
“If you love playing football, if you want to play in front of amazing fans in a big stadium, at a club with fantastic training facilities then put some tracksuit bottoms on and come and play for Sunderland. Making excuses is a soft way out.”
Defoe concedes that he, too, once had “a different perception,” of the north-east. “But that was before Toronto,” he says. “Until then I thought it was too cold ‘up north’. Then I went to Canada. The cold there. Wow. After that, Sunderland’s tropical.”
The heat is already on Moyes, with many pundits forecasting relegation. “We know we have to improve but there’s a long way to go,” Defoe said. “It’s not a situation you want to be in but it’s nothing new to us; maybe other teams would panic more in our position. If the whole team sticks together we’ll be fine. If we win at Stoke, we’re up and running.” The 34-year-old is encouraged by the squad’s surprisingly resilient morale. “There’s some good characters here. The spirit’s always been good, the spirit’s not the problem.”
Quality is a different matter and his efforts to make Sunderland much more than the sum of their parts have sometimes reduced Defoe to on-pitch tears after scoring key goals. “It’s just the emotion of such important games,” the striker said.
“It’s because we needed the points so bad it was scary. We’ve got a good thing here, relegation would be a shame.
“I’ve always felt we have so much more to give, that we can improve and push on. Those times I’ve cried, it’s because it means so much for me to be here and scoring goals. It’s special here.”
Moyes is similarly frustrated by his enduring struggle to unlock Sunderland’s potential but Defoe points out that it is still only three months since he succeeded Sam Allardyce and improvements will inevitably be incremental.
Significantly, insiders say the Scot is their most “hands-on” manager in years and talk of his enthusiasm for breathing new life into this doziest of sleeping giants in much the same way that Rafael Benítez is revitalising Newcastle United.
Certainly watching Moyes work as the focal point of training – variously instructing Patrick van Aanholt to “track back’ at breakneck speed and shouting “love it” as 14 consecutive passes are registered during an exercise in close control under pressure – is to see vision and commitment shining through the October gloom. “It’s been difficult,” Defoe said. “But you can’t just come into a club and make it click overnight. There’s a new way of playing and it was always going to take time to build something. Hopefully the manager will get time.”
