Sunderland: Allardyce predicts relegation fight

Southend United boss Phil Brown has turned down Sam Allardyce’s offer to become his assistant manager at Sunderland, in order to stay in charge at Roots Hall, according to Sky Sports. “It’s like when you make a substitution in desperation and it comes off. You get all the credit for your tactical brilliance when it’s often just luck.”

His first home game at the Stadium of Light will be against Newcastle on 25 October, with an away trip to West Brom before that on 17 October.

Although there were many candidates for the position, Allardyce has been named as Sunderland boss ahead of their trip to the Hawthornes to face West Bromwich Albion this weekend.

SUNDERLAND’S new manager Sam Allardyce hasn’t been in charge of a game yet for the Black Cats, yet he’s talking about becoming England manager.

He added: “It is in my blood”.

Poyet, meanwhile, was appointed in 2013 shortly after he admitted, while unemployed, he’d spent most of his time watching teams who were struggling in that season’s Premier League, in anticipation of his next move.

Having saved Sunderland from relegation in remarkable style last season, Advocaat’s failure to get any victories in the first eight games of the new Premier League campaign saw him resign from the Stadium of Light post. What I want to find out is whether the staff are doing as much as they can to help the players, and a few of the players are disappointed with what they’ve produced up until now. It has been insisted by Southend that no contact has been made between the two clubs but it seems that McDonald could return to his role as Allardyce’s number two if he was to leave the Seaside club. As reported by The Express, Welbeck has expressed his surprise at the tide of criticism that has come the Frenchman´s way in recent years.

Wenger has won just over half of his matches against Allardyce’s teams, with 16 wins, seven draws and five defeats in 28 contests.

One manager Allardyce did find time to praise was Alex Ferguson, whom he describes as a “genuine friend”.

Despite spending significant fees to bring in the likes of Jeremain Lens and Fabio Borini in the summer, Sunderland possess a squad containing players lacking in either ability or belief. They have done all of this before, they have seen it and know what the Premier League is all about.

On the evidence of this season – Sunderland are winless and second from bottom – it is hard to disagree with Advocaat’s pessimistic appraisal.