By Ian Palmer
In a move what most soccer fans saw coming, English Premier League club Sunderland announced on March 16 that manager Gus Poyet has been fired. The announcement was made shortly after the team was embarrassed 4-0 at home by Aston Villa, who just happen to be the lowest-scoring professional club out of all 92 in England. Sunderland sits in 17th place in the 20-team league with just 26 points from 29 games and are a single point ahead of the relegation zone. They’ve won just once in their last dozen league outings and now have nine matches remaining to avoid the drop into the second-tier Championship League. The squad has won only four games all season long with 14 draws and 11 defeats while scoring 23 goals and allowing 43.
Ellis Short, the chairman of Sunderland told the media and fans via the team’s official website, “I would like to thank Gus Poyet for his endeavors during his time at the club, in particular last season’s ‘great escape’ and cup final appearance, which will live long in the memory of every Sunderland fan Sadly, we have not made the progress that any of us had hoped for this season and we find ourselves battling, once again, at the wrong end of the table. We have therefore made the difficult decision that a change is needed.”
With four wins in 29 contests the decision shouldn’t have been that difficult for Ellis to make and thousands of fans are wondering why it wasn’t made sooner. The 46-year-old Uruguayan native Poyet took over the reins in October of 2013 and was in charge for a total of 75 games. The team narrowly escaped relegation last year by winning four of their final five fixtures and ended up finishing in 14th place. The manager did have some success in the League Cup though, as he led the squad to the Cup Final at Wembley. It was Sunderland’s first major Cup Final appearance in 22 years, but they failed to bring home the silverware as Manchester City dropped them 3-1.
Poyet is the sixth Premier League manager to lose his job in the 2014/15 season and still might not be the last as Burnley, Queens Park Rangers. Leicester City and Newcastle are all struggling. Sunderland’s 4-0 loss to Aston Villa on March 14 was their worst home defeat since 2007. The loss also resulted in several fans having to be restrained by stewards and police officers as they attempted to get to Poyet at halftime during that contest when it was already 4-0. The team was also hammered 8-0 earlier in the campaign at Southampton, which equaled the franchise’s worst-ever beating.
Sunderland was at the bottom of the league when Poyet took over from former boss Paolo di Canio as manager and the team hasn’t shown any improvement since. The club didn’t announce a replacement for Poyet, but whoever succeeds him will have a hard time keeping the team in the Premier League. Oddsmakers list the odds of them being relegated at 6/4.
