Dick Advocaat has pledged to complete his one-year contract at Sunderland following candid talks with Ellis Short, the club’s owner, and his players.
In recent weeks Advocaat has declined repeated invitations to reiterate his commitment to the role, but the manager’s mood was noticeably brighter on Friday.
Asked if he would still be around when domestic football resumes on 12 September, after the international break, his reply was unequivocal:“100%” said Advocaat, who has made plain his displeasure at Short’s new-found reluctance to invest in players worth £10m or more. “I never said that I will quit this club. I hope I can stay until the end of the season. Honestly. This is a great club, I really mean that. I have been at many great clubs but this is a really special one.”
Perhaps instructively, he refused to answer an inquiry as to whether he had considered quitting in recent weeks before revealing he had been involved in constructive talks with “our president [Short]”.
“I am happier now,” the Dutchman said. “I have had a good talk with the president and also the players this week. The team will be there for me. We did it last year [avoid relegation] and we will do the same again. That is the feeling I have now – and we know how to do it with the players.”
If it seems a watershed was reached in the past couple of days, an alternative explanation is that Advocaat’s earlier unhappiness was all part of a game of brinkmanship intended to put pressure on Short to improve the squad.
Indeed as a briefing intended to preview Saturday’s game at Aston Villa – where Sunderland will attempt to secure their first Premier League win of the season – drew towards a conclusion, the former Holland manager answered the question he had earlier made a point of avoiding.
“I was never thinking of leaving this club, honestly,” he said, unprompted. “We took the decision to do it and I would never leave this club now. Everybody knew inside the club I would never go. I have a really great feeling with this club.”
It all seemed radically different from Monday when a disgruntled Advocaat confronted the media clutching a piece of paper with the felt-tipped words “Don’t laugh” written in Dutch. When, helpfully, he translated this memo for reporters it seemed a not-so-subtle message to Short, but on Friday an alternative explanation was offered.
“Last week you wrote about me not laughing, and I have to explain why,” he said. “I have a tooth out [broken]. If I laugh, you see it [the gap], and that was the reason. It was nothing to do with my mood. I broke the tooth eating some candy. Next week I go to the dentist in Holland.”
Whatever rapprochement has been reached behind the scenes is unlikely to have been prompted entirely by Sunderland’s latest signing. Although Ola Toivonen’s arrival was welcomed by Advocaat, the recruitment of the Sweden attacking midfielder on loan from Rennes is not quite the kind of high-calibre acquisition he envisaged.
Yet after this week’s talks Advocaat exhibited greater sympathy for Short’s new-found caution, claiming certain predecessors in the manager’s chair had “not cared for the club” by buying sub-standard players on vastly inflated wages. “I totally understand the owner because he has spent so much over the last few years and has seen nothing back, only playing for relegation every year,” said the manager. “A lot of players – not one or two or three, much more – he’s still paying for and they’re not even here any more. That’s not good for the club and I can understand a bit of the suspicion.
“Spending a lot is not a problem for the owner if you see it [results] on the pitch. Over the last couple of years he didn’t see it on the pitch. I think that man is willing to do the best for this club. I really mean that - but if you see nothing back you become a little bit suspicious.”
