For Sunderland, Ruthlessness Can’t Become Recklessness
· Yahoo Sports
“Ruthless”.
A popular word in footballing circles, often used to describe the world’s leading strikers (“He’s ruthless whenever he gets a chance inside the box”), teams who scent blood and show no mercy, hard-nosed managers who make often-controversial decisions for the good of their team (“Manager X is ruthless when it comes to making the big calls on players”), and in recent times, a term that seems to be being used with increasingly regularity in relation to Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
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Of course, it’s probably fair to say that its usage isn’t without merit — even if it often sits alongside “headloss”, “meltdown”, and “liability” in the collection of too easily-relied upon phrases within the Sunderland lexicon.
In recent times, the departures of Kristjaan Speakman and the recently confirmed exit of David Bruce have seemingly offered evidence of Dreyfus’ willingness set aside all traces of sentimentality when it comes to Sunderland’s chances of progress, with the future of Régis Le Bris seemingly not exempt from such speculation, either.
Inevitable? Probably.
This is a high-stakes business, after all, and almost two decades after Roman Abramovich set in motion a process that would see elite managers fired by Chelsea without a second thought, chairmen around the country have often followed suit, shaking things up and going against popular opinion in the pursuit of certain targets,
However, amid all of the talk of Sunderland reaching the ‘next level’ and suchlike, I think it’s fair to sound a note of caution — not least because the job that Le Bris has done this season in moulding almost an entirely new side into a competitive unit after an almost decade-long top flight absence shouldn’t be downplayed.
Ruthlessness in sporting circles is not always a good thing.
Occasionally, ruthlessness is a vice, borne of the desire to chase a goal that isn’t yet achievable or the result of trying to appease a fanbase that was growing restless for whatever reason. Tremendous progress has been overseen during Dreyfus’ tenure as custodian of our club, but ensuring that it doesn’t give way to muddled thinking and badly-judged decisions is paramount.
Under notoriously trigger-happy former owner George Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees’ obsessive quest for World Series glory drove regular managerial change in the Bronx. Under Abramovich, it was carried out in the spirit of parading domestic and European trophies along the King’s Road, but surely our goals — at this stage at least — are rightly a touch more modest?
I’m all for the ideal of progress and to see where this club could eventually go, but I’m also a believer in patience, seeing the bigger picture and not over-reaching if it’s not the right time to do so.
This is not a value judgement but merely a description: Le Bris is unique in Sunderland circles — a head coach the likes of which we’ve never had in post in my lifetime. Furthermore, I believe that unlike Martin O’Neill (the right man at the wrong time), Paolo Di Canio (the wrong man at the wrong time) and Michael Beale (we’ll skip that, actually), the Frenchman is that rarest of examples: the right man at the perfect time.
He’s changed the perception that only abrasive and confrontational managers or head coaches can succeed at the Stadium of Light. His hard-nosed and fiendishly tough-to-crack style of play has been extremely well suited to this league during our maiden campaign, and the team spirit he’s fostered in the process has carried us to so many memorable results during his time at the helm.
That may only grow in time, as confidence continues to rise and the players continue to develop.
You only have to witness the kinds of performances regularly being turned in by the likes of Enzo Le Fée for proof that the mutual belief between Le Bris and his players is very, very strong, and it would surely take an absolutely cataclysmic downturn for the safety of his position to be in major doubt.
Why, therefore, would you want to dismantle that, potentially sacrificing everything that’s been built on the altar of idealism and running the risk of ending up in a situation akin to Nottingham Forest?
Le Bris arrived here with relatively little fanfare and has done a sterling job; were he to depart and and a new path be taken, there’s no guarantee that we’d find the magic formula and that the players would necessarily continue on their current trajectories.
For a club in our position, stability is a priceless commodity and it’s important not to equate it with accepting mediocrity or settling for what we’ve got. The two can coexist and I sincerely hope that any further decisions that may be made on the futures of high-ranking club officials take that into consideration.
Building the latest version of Sunderland AFC required a lot of painstaking work and the odd misstep along the way. Dismantling it wouldn’t be anywhere near as arduous a task — but the results could be incredibly damaging in both the short and long term.
That shouldn’t be overlooked if and when such discussions are held, so let’s hope that a sensible approach continues to be taken. Our future prosperity may well depend on it.