Alex Neil Stoke failure offers biggest argument for Sunderland to reject outdated manager model

Sunderland are very specifically looking for a head coach, not a manager, and Alex Neil's Stoke shambles has highlighted why.

Michael Graham | Dec 10, 2023

Alex Neil Stoke failure offers biggest argument for Sunderland to reject outdated manager model /

For Sunderland fans, it has been undeniably difficult not to take an interest in Stoke City this season. Even if you haven’t really wanted to, you kind of can’t help but peek due to the Alex Neil factor.

Few figures in recent Sunderland history triggered the emotions like Alex Neil, both good and bad. He took us from the ecstasy of a Wembley win and promotion to the raw anger of his snake-like departure with just five league games in between.

There has been, if we’re honest, probably a desire to see him fail at Stoke, purely due to the manner of his departure, and failed he has. On Sunday night he was dismissed after bottom-of-the-table Sheffield Wednesday inflicted an 11th defeat on the Potters in just 20 games this season.

It left Stoke just two points above the relegation zone and with them the third lowest scorers in the whole Championship under the Scotsman.

There is another reason why watching Neil at Stoke was especially fascinating, though. It’s probably fair to say that no one provided a greater challenge to Sunderland’s plans – the much discussed ‘model’ – than Alex Neil did.

After being the man to finally get Sunderland out of League One, Neil was a highly popular and therefore powerful figure at the club in the summer of 2022.

Alex Neil with Sunderland at Wembley — Alex Neil after getting Sunderland out of League One - finally / IMAGO

What he chose to do with that power was leverage it into an attempt to force those running the club to change the way they were working and hand him control over transfers. The head coach role that he signed up for no longer satisfied him, and probably never did. He wanted to be an old school manager.

Once that attempted coup d'état failed, he found a club who was willing to give him what he wanted. He said his goodbyes to the players before he had even quit the club. That’s when things got ugly.

Whilst still employed by Sunderland, instead of leading the Black Cats in a home game against Norwich, he was in the stands at Ewood Park watching Stoke play Blackburn. On his way out of the door the day before, he briefed the press he had essentially been forced out in an ‘emotional’ state because ‘he felt Sunderland failed to back him in the transfer market.’

Told Alex Neil has said his goodbyes to the players, and the Sunderland manager was very emotional. He’s set to take over at Stoke as he felt Sunderland failed to back him in the transfer market #SAFC
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) August 26, 2022

And with that, the battle for the narrative began. If Neil couldn’t leverage his popularity into making the club change their methods for him, he was going to leverage it into making sure that the club were blamed for his exit.

It worked too, at least it did to an extent. Not, certainly, the extent to which Neil hoped, as many – probably most – felt anyone who could treat Sunderland so disrespectfully could well and truly get stuffed no matter what he might have achieved before.

However, while it didn’t spark the kind of revolt Neil probably expected, the debate was significant – and the Sunderland transfer policy was right at its forefront. Some fans wanted to keep Neil, who had proven himself with promotion, more than they wanted to keep a ‘model’ that had not. Very understandable.

"The key factor was probably the ownership," Neil told Stoke's media team after his unveiling. “I think they're widely renowned in the game as being one of the best owners.

“I think they give you everything that you need sort of on and off the pitch that you'd require as a manager to succeed, and that really appeals to me because I think any good managers wants to be accountable for obviously the decisions that you make going forward."

The day the move was confirmed, the two clubs’ official channels made it all very clear. He left Sunderland a head coach, and joined Stoke as a manager.

Sunderland AFC can confirm that Alex Neil has joined Stoke City with immediate effect.
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) August 28, 2022

We're delighted to confirm the appointment Alex Neil as our new manager! 🤝
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) August 28, 2022

Neil and Sunderland not only parted ways, but they had also taken very different paths as well. Sunderland double-downed on their highly technical data-driven strategy that essentially made the role of a ‘manager’ redundant.

Neil meanwhile, after initially having to patch up his squad with loan deals due to financial restrictions under FFP, was handed the transfer reigns last summer to do what he wanted to do at Sunderland – be a manager and build his own squad.

“Stoke City have never seen a summer like it,” The Stoke Sentinel reported the morning after deadline day.

“There have been 37 transfer deals in and out in this window, with 18 signings – including one who has already left – as Alex Neil and his recruitment team have completely rebuilt the first team squad.

“The word ‘reset’ has been used quite regularly but this has been more than switching it off and switching it back on again. Everything has been dismantled and put together again to Neil’s spec, a chance that few managers will ever have at this level.”

Alex Neil at Stoke — Alex Neil given huge freedom at Stoke / IMAGO

From a Sunderland point of view, it presented a genuinely remarkable opportunity to observe.

It was a true Bullseye ‘here is what you could have won’ situation. Both scenarios were going to get played out, not just one. Sunderland were going to keep doing their thing while Alex Neil had gone somewhere else and was going to do there what he had wanted to do at Sunderland.

There were a few good signings among Neil’s picks at Stoke too and it will be interesting to see if another manager can gel them together given more time.

However, none were was good as the players the Sunderland recruitment team were landing. There were no one at the same level as Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard, Patrick Roberts, Jobe Bellingham, Trai Hume and the others who have gone on to form the bedrock of the squad from which Neil walked away.

The Stoke academy was not providing him with players at the level of Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson and Chris Rigg either. In fact, one of Neil’s better Stoke signings was Lynden Gooch, a Sunderland academy product who was only going to play a limited role for the Black Cats this season.

Nor has there been any evidence that Neil, had he been given control, would have solved Sunderland’s striker problem this season either. The two that he signed over the summer, Ryan Mmaee and Wesley Moraes, have just two goals between them so far this campaign.

And, actually, why would he have been able to match, or even better, Sunderland's recruitment? In modern football, recruitment has become such a huge task that it's a highly specialist area. Clubs, including Sunderland, have entire teams working extensively on it all-year round. How could a manager get similar results? Especially given all the time demands of coaching as well?

Therefore, it is perhaps the height of irony that in his Stoke City failure, Alex Neil has probably provided the biggest argument against the very managerial ‘model’ that he was so adamant should be Sunderland’s future.

In fact, it's such a strong argument that you wonder whether it will prompt transformative change in the Stoke methodology too.

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