Sunderland roll the Managerial Dice

Managerial appointments will often tell you a lot about the philosophy of a clubs board.

While appointing a manager of the pedigree of Ferguson, Mourinho or Guardiola would be defined as a ‘no brainer’ decision; when you don’t have the luxury of choosing a manager with a track record of nothing but success, you can only choose between two categories of manager.

You can choose a manager with a consistent record who has performed admirably with many clubs and had few failures, or you can appoint one who has achieved spectacular success, but is not proven across more than a few clubs.

Paulo Di Canio falls heavily into the latter category.  As a manager his only experience is in League One and League Two of English Football, but given he started with an average League Two team and made them a high flying League one team in just 20 months, his achievement is spectacular.

Furthermore Di Canio gave everyone the belief that he would have Swindon Town in the Championship sooner rather than later.

As a player, Di Canio was as controversial as they come.  Many red cards, including one where he pushed the referee to the ground after receiving the card, interspersed moments of sublime genius.  Di Canio has been quoted as saying that discipline is the most important part of management, which is clearly something he was never good at following as a player.  Despite his controversial moments, he also notably caught the ball, rather than score when a keeper was down injured, earning him the FIFA Fair Play Award.

Di Canio’s aptitude for the game however, is not in question.  It is rumoured that in an Italian managerial exam, he scored the highest score ever recorded.  This is an exam that has also been taken by managerial legends such as Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi.

In Martin O’Neill, Sunderland have dispensed with a manager who was the exact opposite of Di Canio.  In spells at Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa, Martin O’Neill is remembered fondly, and the role at Sunderland is the first where he has failed to exceed expectations and the first where he has been fired.  He was a safe pair of hands that most would still bet on keeping Sunderland in the Premier Division.

Sunderland is unlikely to be a quiet and boring place with Di Canio around.  The consistency of the Martin O’Neill reign has gone.  It is likely that with Di Canio in charge, they will only enjoy either unprecedented success, or cataclysmic failure.