The man who lit up the Stadium of Light

Since Martin O’Neill took over the reins at Sunderland, the club has gone on to win four matches out of the six that he has been in charge of. He has pulled the club from the dumps of the relegation zone to the top half of the table in incredible fashion. After their recent victory against Wigan Athletic,  winger James McClean was gushing with praise for the new manager: “He’s lifted everyone around the club. He’s given us all a new lease of life so it’s huge credit to him, he’s a remarkable manager,” he told the BBC. The English Premier League has seen a lot of managers go through the revolving door, a lot because of the sky-high expectations that their owners have and some plainly because they couldn’t cope up with the rigours of the game. A game which has increasingly become result-oriented and where no one is indispensable. Steve Bruce was probably shown the sack because of the second reason. His record at Sunderland, in spite of leading them to 10th position last season, has been dismal since 25th February 2011. The record? 16 defeats, six draws and five wins- which is 21 points from a possible 81. Although not being a supporter of managers being fired without being give enough time, the ex-Manchester United defender’s release from the club has been justified within a handful of matches. Martin O’Neill had taken a sabbatical from football after his stint at Aston Villa came to an end in August 2011 after giving their fans a superb few seasons of attacking football, adventurous attacking and skillful defending. When he took over, they were in a similar state, finishing 16th in 2005-06. He gave a lift to the club as soon as he took over at Villa Park, as they started off the 2006-07 season with an unbeaten run of nine matches and ended it with a similar streak. The next season was even better with them being considered quite a moderate force in English football. They scored 71 goals, which was the maximum tally since they last won the league, finishing 6th. Another solid season followed as they led Chelsea and Arsenal in 3rd position till the 25th game-week, but ended the season in 6th again. For Villa though, this was massive. Transfer funds became a problem later on and O’Neill’s time away from the game has probably given him opportunity to rethink some of his strategies for the better over a pint of Guinness. Aston Villa and Sunderland are two completely different forces and when the latter came calling, the boyhood fan in the experienced manager took centre-stage and signed on the dotted line. But this is no ordinary manager. His medals include a couple of League Cups won with Leicester City and taking them to the Premiership in 1995-96, three Scottish Premier Leagues and three Scottish Cups won while manager of Celtic. Even with that record, the way he has turned Sunderland around as if he were pointing to each player with a wand and controlling them from the touchline is just stunning. There should be some caution attached before we add the tag of ‘great manager’ to his name, but if this continues then Sunderland will surely be in good hands for the next couple of years. [caption id=“attachment_172479” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sunderland’s new coach Martin O’Neill poses for photographs during a media conference at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland. Reuters”]  [/caption] His first match in charge of them was against ‘fellow strugglers’ Blackburn Rovers and saw his team come from behind in a dramatic victory. Martin O’Neill’s ensuing celebration on the touchline was more child-like than that of a manager who is handling an under pressure club. There is nothing else which shows total commitment to the club’s cause. The ability to bring out the best in each player of your team also stems from how you rotate the squad and he did so with penchant in the following games, making them compete for their place in the team rather than guaranteeing them games. His starting line-ups for all the victories since taking over have not been the most uniform and every player has had their chance to show their worth. Even when he was without Sebastien Larsson, who probably is their most gifted player technically, O’Neill managed to scrape victories. The catalyst was surely the 3-2 victory against Queen’s Park Rangers in the last minute and then they went on to secure points against Everton (1-1), Manchester City (1-0) and Wigan Athletic (4-1). His comment on air did not do any harm. All he said was, “We feel unbeatable.” A confident manager is a pre-requisite to a confident team. The major difference has been the concentration levels that have gone up. They do not look like the drab side that conceded goals and gave up early and it is evident in the number of goals they have scored in the last 10 minutes of every match O’Neill has been in charge of. Six out of 11 goals that Sunderland have scored under him came after 70 minutes on the clock. With their form coming at the right time of the season, any concerns about relegation should be banished because the shrewd Northern Irishman will make sure that his team stay up in the league. ‘Fellow strugglers’ we called them earlier. Surely no more, and surely not at the end of the season. Now we know who lit up the Stadium of Light.