Dick Advocaat has urged Yann M’Vila not to self-destruct as the France midfielder attempts to salvage his once richly promising career.
So far the portents are not hopeful. Last weekend M’Vila, newly arrived on loan from Russia’s Rubin Kazan, was offered a run out as an over-age player in Sunderland’s Under-21 game against Norwich City but was sent off for head-butting an opponent.
With his resultant suspension applying only to junior games, the 25-year-old is expected to make his senior debut on Saturday at home to, by coincidence, Norwich. M’Vila’s ill-discipline during a loan stint at Internazionale last season prompted an infuriated Roberto Mancini to terminate the deal and return him to Russia five months early, but Advocaat hopes Sunderland’s gamble will pay dividends.
“He’s a good player, a controller and a quick, clever passer,” M’Vila’s latest manager said. “The head-butt was not good. He knows that and we have discussed it with him. He knows we can’t accept that kind of thing. We’ve told him that, in England, everybody is watching him. With his name, he has to be aware of that and stay away from trouble. Hopefully he understands that better now, although you can’t always change the temper of people.”
Unfortunately trouble has tended to exert a magnetic effect on the 6ft on-field anchor whose playing ability has regularly been likened to that of Patrick Vieira, Claude Makélélé and Yaya Touré. All too typically the midfielder, who has been capped 22 times by France, left Russia amid a trail of allegations that a mooted move to Dynamo Moscow this summer had collapsed after he trashed his Moscow apartment following a dispute over rent.
Advocaat was in similarly thunderous mood after watching his team’s 4-2 surrender at Leicester last Saturday and is hoping for a significant improvement against Norwich at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
“I was shocked,” Sunderland’s manager said. “There was no excuse for the way we played at Leicester. If you think you can play that way then you have no chance at all. If there is no aggression in the team to get the ball, then it will be very difficult for us. Against Norwich the players have to show me what they can do.”
Sunderland’s net spend of about £6m this summer is among the lowest in the Premier League. Advocaat was asked if avoiding yet another relegation struggle depended on his squad being restocked with quality individuals in the next fortnight. His reply proved instructive. “We still have 14 days,” he said. “There’s no reason to discuss these things now; we will have the facts in 14 days’ time.”
A rare shaft of sunlight on his horizon was the news that Adam Johnson’s shoulder injury is not as serious as first envisaged and will not require surgery. “He’ll be out for six or seven weeks,” the former Holland coach said. “At first they said at least eight, so it’s better than we expected.”
