David Moyes has heard the warnings. As Sunderland’s seventh manager in five turbulent years he knows all about the club’s reputation as a sort of Bermuda Triangle for his profession but the Scot remains determined to put things right on Wearside.
Doing so will involve solving an enduring puzzle. Predecessor after predecessor has made oblique references to “something being wrong” at the club. Gus Poyet was particularly vocal on the subject. After avoiding relegation last spring Sam Allardyce described Sunderland as his “most difficult” managerial posting, with off-field issues proving especially vexing.
So is something really wrong at the club? “Strangely it’s been mentioned,” said Moyes as he prepared for Sunday’s visit to Tottenham Hotspur still seeking his first Premier League win since taking charge in July.
“There is, there’s something – but I’m no closer to identifying it. The biggest thing I’m focusing on is trying to get the team right. Of course I can see other things which need to be improved or altered but I want to up the team’s levels. We need a win to get ourselves started.”
It is shortly after 9am on Friday and, although the thunder and lightning that woke the north-east in the early hours have abated, the sky remains ominously black as rain cascades down. Such weather pretty much matched Moyes’s mood on Monday night, when his side surrendered 3-0 at home to his former club Everton. It seemed to serve as confirmation that, as predicted, Sunderland were set for a fifth successive relegation dalliance. “I almost always sleep well,” says the former Manchester United and Real Sociedad manager. “But Monday was a bad night.”
After a transfer window in which Ellis Short, the owner, failed to invest in a striker to complement Jermain Defoe, the 53-year-old could be forgiven for pronouncing himself a little underwhelmed with his new job. “I think I was expecting it to be an exciting, tough challenge but there’s bits of it I didn’t expect to be quite the way it is,” he says, diplomatically.
While Moyes seems reasonably satisfied with his eight summer signings he did not envisage having to sign the currently unfit free agent Victor Anichebe as Defoe’s support act after the transfer market’s closure nor the failure to re-recruit last season’s star midfield loanee Yann M’Vila from Rubin Kazan.
If the acquisition of the Gabon midfielder Didier Ndong – who became Sunderland’s record £13.5m buy on joining from Lorient – and the sealing of a loan deal for the Manchester United winger Adnan Januzaj were encouraging, the under-staffed attacking armoury represents a potential problem.
This shortfall may not entirely surprise England’s new manager, who had been increasingly agitated about the lack of transfer activity before his summons from the FA. “I’ve spoken to Sam,” says Moyes. “He knew exactly what the situation was here; getting your transfers done early is a big help but, before I came, Sam hadn’t been able to get any players in. Sam had a plan and we’ve, roughly, followed bits of it. The only disappointing thing is that we weren’t able to get a centre-forward in to give us a chance to play two up front or behind Jermain.”
The good news for Sunderland was that Moyes proved expert at getting the best out of limited resources at Everton. Even so, repeating that feat on Wearside may involve awkward questions being asked in the boardroom. “Is it correct leadership from the top?” he muses. “Has correct direction been given?”
Then there is the dressing room. “The players definitely need to up their levels,” he says. “There’s definitely a mental fragility in the team. They’ve got to become tougher mentally. To get that mental toughness you need a heart and a spirit.
“I actually think there’s a bit of that in the club but being mentally tough is also about being brave enough to get on the ball and then pass it well. It’s not just about showing you can defend and concentrate. It’s about not giving the ball away too quickly, too cheaply.”
Given the context of apparently interminable relegation struggles it is remarkable that gates have held up so well, with the Stadium of Light often attracting crowds in excess of 45,000 last season. “I think we have to give the supporters something to look forward to in the future, so they can say, ‘This is going to improve’,” says Moyes, who makes it plain that his intended rebuilding will not happen overnight. “They’ve been through hardship for four years now. They’ve had it bad.”
Arguably part of the problem is that lucrative pop concerts staged at the Stadium of Light during the summer have latterly dictated that a team that have not won a Premier League game in August for the past six seasons play their first such match away and do not host pre‑season friendlies.
“I’ve made one suggestion that we need to have a couple of pre-season friendlies at home,” says Moyes. “Maybe it’s something that could help get rid of this hoodoo?
“We’re talking about leadership, the club saying: ‘No, we’re not doing that, we’re actually going to see if we can get the first Premier League game at home and play a pre-season tournament here.’ It might not be the answer but I’m trying to find solutions.”
