Thierry Henry: David Moyes can turn Sunderland into a decent Premier League force – if he’s given the chance to do the job we know he is capable of
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DAVID MOYES can turn Sunderland into a decent Premier League force — if he’s given the chance to do the job we know he is capable of.
Moyes proved at Everton he can take a club that has been fighting relegation and transform them into European contenders.
That’s exactly what Sunderland should be aiming for — but there has been too much instability recently.
It won’t happen overnight and they have to be realistic this season.
Moyes is the Black Cats’ 12th permanent manager in 14 years — and that kind of turnover makes it impossible to succeed.
I still believe Moyes was unlucky to be sacked by Manchester United after one season in charge.
He deserved more time to put his print on the team. He did an OK job — but because the club didn’t challenge for the title straight away they weren’t prepared to give him another chance.
That’s the problem for every manager today. If you don’t perform in your first year, you’re done for.
Replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at United was always going to be an impossible job.
People now say that no ‘big’ club will ever gamble on a manager from a smaller team as a result of Moyes’ failure to last the course with United.
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I really hope that isn’t the case and believe there are still enough owners who are brave enough to ignore the clamour for a big-name boss to deliver instant success.
Don’t forget Pep Guardiola was appointed by Barcelona with just one year’s experience in charge of their B team.
That took a lot of courage from the board, no one could have known just how good a coach Pep would prove to be.
I was a Barcelona player at the time and remember that we lost our first league game away to newly promoted Numancia, then drew at home with Racing Santander.
But no one panicked or started asking questions, because everyone shared the club’s belief in the new boss and his philosophy.
That didn’t seem to be the case for Moyes at United, where there were whispers that the job was too big for him after his first month in charge.
What really impressed me about Moyes was that he didn’t sit around feeling sorry for himself after his sacking.
Instead, he moved out of his comfort zone and took on a new culture at Real Sociedad.
That took a lot of cojones on his part and, even though his stay in Spain only lasted a year, he would have learned a lot about himself and the game from the experience.
So I wasn’t surprised when Sunderland turned to him as soon as Sam Allardyce left to take on the England job.
They were unlucky to lose at Manchester City last week — and today’s home match against Middlesbrough is a chance to get up and running.
Sunderland fans won’t exactly be sorry to see Newcastle in the Championship but they will miss the intensity of the Tyne-Wear derby games.
Boro are the closest they have to local rivals now, so it should be electric today.
The best Sunderland can hope for this season is a mid-table finish — and I don’t see why that is beyond them.
Having Jermain Defoe gives them a big advantage over all the other teams in the lower half of the Premier League.
No one else has a striker who will score 15 to 20 goals a season, so as long as they can keep Defoe fit and firing, they can slowly climb the table.