The appointment of Martin O'Neill as Sunderland manager is great news for all those long suffering fans who have been subjected to a two and a half year reign of abject mediocrity under Steve Bruce.
What possessed Chairman Ellis Short to give Bruce a new three year contract earlier this year is beyond the comprehension of football fans throughout Wearside as Bruce was already clearly struggling in the job. Bruce will have pocketed a small fortune for his failure in the job but Ellis Short has made the right decision to quickly appoint O'Neill as his successor.
Short has made many changes to the structure of the football club since taking over the club in May 2009. Margaret Byrne has replaced Steve Walton as Chief Executive whilst Mike Farnan has been appointed as International Marketing Director replacing local lass Lesley Callaghan who stepped down earlier this year. The well respected Labour MP and former Cabinet Minister David Milliband was appointed as non executive Vice Chairman earlier this year and Short now has his own people in virtually every part of the Club.
O'Neill will be expected to bring in his own back room staff led by trusted sidekicks Steve Walford and John Robertson as well as other backroom personnel who have been with him at Villa and Celtic.
Rumours suggest that O'Neill has negotiated a transfer budget of around £15-20M for next year and the 59 year old Irishman will be expected to deliver a top ten Premier League position as a minimum next season. Sunderland fans will also hope that O'Neill will be able to improve on the Club's desperate recent performance in Cup competitions. O'Neill certainly has form here having taken Leicester City to three League Cup finals , winning two of them , taking Aston Villa to the 2010 Carling Cup Final and amongst other notable achievements at Celtic he led them to the UEFA Cup final of 2003 , losing only in extra time to Jose Mourinho's Porto.
A good run in this season's FA Cup would be a great start to Martin O'Neill's three year contract and a third round draw with Peterbrough gives the Black Cats every chance of progressing. Odds of 66/1 for Sunderland to win the FA Cup suddenly seem good value !
Sunderland fans will give O'Neill plenty of time to deliver but his arrival has already lifted expectations both on results and for a more attacking style of play . This time the fans may not be disappointed.
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