Tony Mowbray thinks that his managers’ arguments over team selection cost him his job at Sunderland.
According to Tony Mowbray, the former head coach’s dismissal from Sunderland was most likely brought on by his disregard for his superiors’ advise regarding team selection.
After taking over from Alex Neil during the team’s first season back in the Championship, the former manager of Middlesbrough, Celtic, and West Brom led Sunderland to a top-six finish and a play-off campaign. Mowbray’s Premier League dream was dashed in the semi-final by eventual promotion winners Luton Town.
Mowbray stayed at the Academy of Light and led the squad into the next season, despite suggestions that Sunderland were considering alternative management options the following summer. But with the Black Cats in ninth place in the Championship, Mowbray was fired after 15 months in command.
Following that, Mowbray would take over at Birmingham City before being forced to resign due to a diagnosis of intestinal cancer. Now recovering, the former defender has made a number of appearances in recent weeks, including a talk-in at Sunderland with BBC Radio Newcastle commentator Nick Barnes and an appearance on BBC Radio Tees to cover his boyhood club, Middlesbrough.
In an interview with Barnes that aired on Monday, November 18 on BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport show, Mowbray made it clear that he thought his time at Sunderland was over due to disagreements over team selection between owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sports director Kristjaan Speakman.
Mowbray said to Barnes, “I believe Sunderland is a club with a model.” things’s okay if the owner wants to do things the way he wants to. It was intriguing, if nothing else, because it was my first time actually working under a sporting director. It was the first time I had actually had discussions about the team and the players, and some of it was pretty fantastic.
I guess I found it difficult at times, but I’m conscious enough to admit that I know where football is headed and that every team will have sporting directors, and that’s okay. In my opinion, the sporting director’s job or responsibility is to assist the coach in ensuring that the team performs well and wins games along the way. I initially thought that was intriguing, but I believe that having that experience will help my career going forward and that I’m not a one-man show where everyone has to go to the gaffer to get things done.
“In the end, I believe it was likely due to disagreements over selection, and I found it challenging that there was influence to occasionally choose a different team or to give other people opportunities, which is due to the model.” It’s OK that they want young athletes to have the chance to play and grow in value. I’m almost from a school where the goal is to win football games so that the fans who pay to watch can aim to score three more points and feel happy of themselves for being at the top of the table as they are right now.
They’ve done a fantastic job to start the half, and because of the players I mentioned earlier, who still seem to be at the core of the team, I would have a lot of faith in that group of players that they can accomplish great things because they care about each other and work hard for each other. However, it’s a long, long season, and the test is in front of them, not behind them. I’m really excited to see how this season plays out.
The depth of it all and the number of injuries they might sustain at particular positions are concerns, I suppose. Do they have the depth to support it? This probably fits the owners’ model, which holds that young players occasionally need to be on the team, but when we were winning and the players were performing well, I personally liked to keep them going and keep winning and performing well.
The owner’s approach, on the other hand, is probably more along the lines of occasionally taking him out, taking him out, putting him in, making sure he’s bloodied and prepared for it in case there are injuries or suspensions. I am well aware of this approach, and I’m probably not Sunderland’s manager because there have been a few occasions when I probably disregarded the advice I was given in favour of winning the next game and selecting the team I wanted to play for.
“I wish Sunderland all the best because I understand the model and how it operates. In terms of my health, they have been excellent; their support has been outstanding, and I have nothing but positive things to say about the club because it is truly amazing. I tell everyone in the football world how honoured I am to be in charge of this incredible team, which draws over 40,000 spectators to every game. It is a fantastic team that deserves to succeed, and I sincerely hope that success is on the horizon for them.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE
