Certainly by today’s date, March 17, managers appointed are five times more likely to take their team further down the table than up it.
The only new arrival later in the season than this during the 21-year history of the Premier League to have had a positive impact was when Chris Coleman took Fulham all the way from 15th to 14th over the final five games of 2003.
Sunderland have already experimented with a managerial change this late in the season when Martin O’Neill left the club on March 30, 2013, to be replaced by Paolo Di Canio a day later.
For all the fire the Italian brought to the job, the Black Cats sank from 16th place to 17th, clawing on to survival by just a single point.
Trouble is, such Red Adair acts of life-saving heroics are enshrined in the club’s history. With Sunderland floundering in 20th place in the Championship towards the end of the 1994-95 season, Peter Reid was called in to replace Mick Buxton with only seven games to go. He lost just once, and the club were saved.
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Paolo Di Canio became Sunderland manager in March 2013 but was sacked six months later
But even his credentials were tested when he was brought in to rescue Leeds in the top flight on March 21, 2003. He inherited Terry Venables’ side in 15th position and eight games later the side were a creditable… 15th.
Even Reid admits there is no rocket science involved; the new manager at the Stadium of Light will face a race against the clock to make an impact and may have to resort to some fairly left-field tactics if he is to turn around their current run of results.
“It is impact management,” Reid said of his fire-fighting exploits recently. “You are always thinking on your feet. You know you have only got so long to do it.
“It is not silky football, it is a battle when you get down there and it is about getting the players up for the matches. I remember what I did at Sunderland. I took them out for a meal and got a few drinks down them to relax them.
“That seems out of vogue nowadays with all the sports scientists but they are just the off-the-wall things you do now and then. There are things you need to do that might not be anything to do with football. But it is always that bonding that helps.”
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