Analysis: Alex Neil’s impending departure has not covered Sunderland in glory

Sunderland manager Alex Neil

WITH Alex Neil seemingly on his way out, Sunderland have well and truly had the rug pulled out from underneath them. Six months under his reign has catapulted the club from the depths of League One back into the second tier. Steady progress was being in the early parts of their season with results on the pitch reflecting a strong start to the campaign but behind the scenes, it appears all has not been well. And perhaps we should have seen it coming.

Recapping the events of Friday afternoon already feel like the start of another torrid tale in Sunderland’s recent history.

On the eve of another testing Championship game at home against Norwich City, head coach Neil took charge of training and briefed his team on plans for the game. But there was a very different feeling in the air at the Academy of Light.

For the media, it was a routine Friday huddling around the conference room waiting for Neil to bound through the door at 9am. Sometimes his punctuation can be slightly improper but he is a busy man.

Usually he is late by a couple of minutes, ten at a push. Forty five minutes had gone by and there was still no sign of the Scot.

Low and behold, the door swings open only for a club spokesperson to say the press conference has been moved to 2pm. Speculation over his future gathered pace and the signs were not good.

At 13:40pm, we drove back into the grounds at the Academy of Light and who was driving the opposite way? Of course it was the Sunderland head coach. The press conference was cancelled, Neil said his goodbyes to staff at AoL and he was on his way to Staffordshire to seemingly rubber stamp his switch to the Bet 365 Stadium.

Given the size and stature of a club like Sunderland, it says a lot that they can’t seemingly tie down a man who has just take them up one division and is on a 12 month rolling deal.

Back in May following their play-off final win over Wycombe Wanders, Director of Football Kristjaan Speakman declared that all parties were happy with the current arrangement: “You can sell an agreement any which way you want” he said.

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“What’s important is that all the individuals involved are happy with the agreement, and with a 12-month rolling contract, Alex is tied down.” It appears he wasn’t with the club saying they were ‘contractually obligated’ to allow Neil to engage in talks with Stoke.

Speakman continued: “Alex has been an incredible part of our journey and he deserves every accolade he’s getting. To get to the final position we got to in the league took an incredible effort, no one has had to get that many points to get that position before. He’s a fundamental part of what we’re doing. At the minute, everyone is happy (with the contract).”

It felt like we had been here before. Years ago, he was on the verge of taking the reigns at Stoke City whilst in charge of Preston North End only for the Lilywhites to come back with an improved contract offer. Have Sunderland done that?

The Northern Echo: Sunderland boss Alex Neil

Sunderland boss Alex Neil

Whether or not they have placed an offer on the table, the club have done an extremely bad job in covering their backs and ensuring the long term vision under the reign of Neil who has so far brought large success.

The Sunderland board may well execute one last Hail Mary to keep him and extend his current deal but it appears that will go down in vein. There are strong suggestions that Neil has already agreed terms to take over at Stoke City.

It’s understood that Neil is disappointed with the backing he has received in the early parts of the season. The suggestions are that he feels he can’t take the club to where he wants to go and it’s not like he didn’t fire that warning shot over what may happen if he didn’t get them.

In the hours after promotion to League One, Neil laid down the gauntlet to the Sunderland board. He said he desperately needed the tools to be able to succeed in the Championship. He does not seem satisfied that those tools have been supplied and due to the flexibility of his rolling contract, he now feels he can thrive elsewhere. It has been an incredibly tough transfer market for a lot of clubs at Championship level with clubs from the top flight keeping a firm grip on their players. But as the window has gone on, second tier clubs have made progress while the Black Cats have stagnated.

That being said, Neil has prided himself on his ability to make the best of what he’s got as he regularly demonstrated in League One last season. One defeat from their first five games is not bad going following promotion to the Championship. But how long was that going to last if he wasn’t get what he thought was required?

Until something happens and the deal is rubber stamped, Sunderland are operating as usual. They haven’t even gone as far as to decide who will take on first-team duties against the Canaries this afternoon with less than 24 hours to go until kick-off. But there is a minuet chance of the Scot standing in the Stadium of Light dugout come 12:30pm this afternoon.

There are sorts of circumstantial factors at play. Would he have turned down an offer from Sunderland anyway? Could the club provide what he wanted? Either way, it seems like that club has done itself no favours and now six months on from the sacking of Lee Johnson, it appears that another manager search will be underway in the coming days.