Seven reasons why Sunderland should sack Michael Beale now

It has taken Michael Beale just seven games to inspire Sunderland fans to chant for his sacking. Here are seven reasons the club should listen.

Michael Graham | Jan 20, 2024

Seven reasons why Sunderland should sack Michael Beale now /

It didn’t take us very long to get here, did it? After just seven games, there are already chants from Sunderland fans calling for Michael Beale to be sacked. Seven games.

The former Rangers manager was an unpopular appointment from the start, and I understand that. For Sunderland fans, though, that was hardly our first rodeo. In my near 40 years supporting this club, appointing a manager or head coach or whatever (who really cares anymore?) that people are actually excited about is a once in a decade kind of thing anyway.

Spare us the whole ‘you have to give him a chance’ sales pitch. We know. Believe me we know. This is a club that have been ‘giving managers (that no one really wanted) a chance’ for a lifetime. There has been Phil Parkinson, Lee Johnson and Simon Grayson in the last five or six years alone. We give managers a chance.

And that’s what Beale was given. When the axe falls, whenever that may be, and he’s back to trying to salvage his already-battered reputation in the hope of finding his next set of mugs with a weakness for a PowerPoint presentation, he’ll say he didn’t have enough time – much like his football, though, it’ll be a load of absolute rubbish.

Sure, there were ‘sacked in the morning’ and ‘Beale out’ chants during the defeat to Hull, but before then it was all generally open-minded. No fans turned up to that utterly demoralising and completely pathetic Hull defeat wanting to see it. There were no fans turning up for the home hammering by Coventry wanting to see it either.

He certainly couldn’t claim that the fans were not on his side during the embarrassing derby battering against Newcastle. The sold-out away end at bottom of the table Rotherham were completely behind him too and celebrated the desperate deflected late equaliser with far more joy than it deserved.

The fans who made the 12-hour, 500+ mile round trip to watch a meek surrender of three points at Ipswich were in fabulous voice too.

When you really look at it, being able to display such a staggeringly high level of ineptitude in such a short time is remarkable. The fact that, within just seven games of football, Beale has been able to inspire so much anger and desolation of hope where just weeks ago there was optimism and joy is mindboggling enough, never mind doing it to such a usually overly-patient set of supporters.

Actually, it’s the best single reason to sack him. That’s not making our list, though, so you can have that one for free.

There will be those out there who will say that Beale has only had seven games. A number ever-dwindling by the minute to the absolute miniscule, I’m sure, but some nonetheless.

Well, here are seven reasons to sack him, and when reading through it I urge everyone to keep in mind that the number had to be cut a little while other reasons combined and chucked in together to keep with the self-inflicted seven theme.

Results

Let’s start with the best and most obvious reason of all: results. Beale has lost four of the seven matches for which he has been in charge.

Coventry (H) – L – 0-3
Hull (A) – W – 0-1
Rotherham (A) – D – 1-1
Preston (H) – W – 2-0
Newcastle (H) – L – 0-3
Ipswich (A) – L – 1-2
Hull (H) – L – 0-1

That’s the list. A home battering, a solid yet slightly fortuitous win at Hull, a desperate draw at bottom of the table Rotherham, a lacklustre home win over a pretty awful Preston, a home derby humiliation, a surrender of a winning position at Ipswich, and a home defeat to Hull who were, by their manager’s own admission, putting on their worst performance of the whole season.

A total of seven points from a possible 18 at a points-per-game rate that would have Sunderland a hell of lot closer to League One than the Premier League if it was played out across the whole season so far – and significantly short of the one that got Tony Mowbray sacked.

Four of those games were at home too and, never mind actually winning, Beale’s team couldn’t even muster a goal in three of them. More on that later.

Performances

Dan Neil - Sunderland midfielder — IMAGO / News Images

Football isn’t all about results. We understand that. You’re never going to win every game. Sunderland certainly didn’t under Mowbray.

I don’t want to rewrite history when it comes to Tony Mowbray and Sunderland, tempting as it can be. There were frustrations for us all with him towards the end. I know that, and I wasn’t necessarily against his sacking. Saddened by it, certainly, but not against it.

One thing Mowbray did give you though, much more often than not, was an awful lot of pride in our team. Here they were, a talented, fearless, dynamic and energetic group of young footballers who played some absolutely lovely stuff and were just full of fight and joy.

Win or lose, I loved watching them. I looked forward to watching them.

Since Beale has taken them over, all of that has gone. Literally all of it. The performance levels have completely flatlined.

He keeps on telling us how ‘dominant’ Sunderland were in defeat too. Total nonsense. Sunderland haven’t even been dominant in either of the two games they somehow managed to win under Beale.

Since the Hull defeat is fresh in the memory, ask yourselves just how many chances did Sunderland actually create. How many times did they carve open a weakened Hull midfield and craft a quality opportunity on goal? It was none. There were no chances missed because there were no chances created.

Go back to the start and the Coventry game. A lot of attention was on the Abdoullah Ba miss in that one, but that came from a goalkeeper error with a routine saved parried directly into his path.

Ipswich… a fine performance according to Beale in which we created ‘opportunities’ to score. Let’s look a little closer there. Jobe Bellingham missed a chance following an Ipswich mistake, Sunderland scored from a long-range shot, Adil Aouchiche missed a chance from an Ipswich mistake. Very little was actually created.

And while we are talking about the goals Sunderland have scored under Michael Beale, let’s take a closer look there too.

Hull (A) – W – 0-1 – Jack Clarke solo goal
Rotherham (A) – D – 1-1 – Jack Clarke, long range, deflected
Preston (H) – W – 2-0 – Alex Pritchard, long range – Ruysn after Clarke solo run
Ipswich (A) – L – 1-2 – Jack Clarke, long range

That’s it. An utterly pitiful five goals scored in seven games, all of which were either Jack Clarke individual magic, long range efforts, deflections, or all three. Not one single goal created as a team in seven games.

Now you can probably accept that with a new manager (head coach, whatever) when they are coming into a struggling team. That wasn’t what Beale did, though.

Beale came into a team that was sixth in the league and was coming off two wins in three, including two against teams who will be at least in the play-offs this season. He didn’t need to effect immediate improvement.

How in the blue hell, though, has he been able to make them so much worse in every single measure?! Literally every single element of performances has taken a noticeable nosedive since Beale took charge.

Sunderland are slower, weaker, more error-strewn, less creative, run less, move less, worse from set-pieces, less passion, less energy. Everything. Literally everything. Never mind no immediate improvements, there isn’t a single aspect of Sunderland’s play that hasn’t got immediately worse under Michael Beale.

I mean, taking a bad team and failing to improve them is one thing. Taking a good one and making them worse in every way is another thing entirely.

His bulls**t

Michael Beale - Sunderland boss — IMAGO / PA Images

That’s right, more than 1300 words in and we arrive at just the third reason of seven. Remarkable. Darkly depressing, but remarkable.

Here’s the thing: there are clubs where you can get away with feeding bulls**t to supporters, but Sunderland is not one of them. In fact, it’s probably the last place you’ll get away with it in England.

I’ve already touched on Beale’s penchant for bulls**t above by mentioning his strange habit of making us watch bad performances and describe them as ‘dominant’ and the like. That’s just the tip of this suspiciously brown iceberg though.

For a start, he likes to throw players under the bus. The Coventry defeat was Abdoullah Ba’s fault, the Newcastle one Pierre Ekwah’s, the Ipswich one Adil Aouchiche’s.

After the Hull game, he refrained from throwing players under the bus directly. In fact, he actually said he needed to look at himself – seconds before blaming literally everyone else.

He blamed the fans: “I think this young group are finding that (fans chanting for HIM to be sacked) difficult. I'd ask the fans to get behind them (the team). I get the frustration. They can see the effort of the park from the players and any help they can give them, they have to understand the strength of that.”

He blamed those above him for, well, giving his little passionless self the job apparently: “Tony [Mowbray] did a good job, that the fans are passionate and liked him. That's gone now, it isn't coming back. It is a decision that had nothing to do with me, I came in after that decision.”

He even blamed his own staff: "I'm doing my best with the staff that we've got.” Check the record, Michael, and you’ll see that ‘staff’ have a much better record than you do this season with the same players.

He blamed injuries too, of course. There we are playing a Hull side who have nine players missing and beating us in first gear and Michael Beale is talking about Bradley Dack being injured with a straight face.

It’s not just the nonsense he talks after games though either. In truth, all managers do that to some extent. Perhaps not this extent – definitely not this extent – but to some.

You could maybe dismiss it after games if he didn’t so comprehensively prove that pretty much every single word that comes out of his mouth shouldn’t be believed.

He talks up Nazariy Rusyn, talks about how much Sunderland have missed a player with his movement, how well he took a goal, how important he will be, how great it will be to get him on a run, how much he needs confidence – then drops him for the very next league game.

He plays Abdoullah Ba instead, who puts in arguably his best performance of the season at Ipswich, creates a goal, looks confident – then drops him for the very next game.

He talks about how Luis Hemir is probably not at a good enough level yet and needs a loan, yet Eliezer Mayenda needs to stay at the club as he’s sharp and looking really confident for the under-21s – then names Hemir on the bench with Mayenda nowhere to be seen.

He says he is missing five players who are injured and all would be ‘starters’ if they were fit, yet three of them play the same position and another is Bradley Dack, who has started four league games all season.

He talks nothing but complete and utter nonsense that is such rubbish that he almost always contradicts himself within days, and then expects fans to respect his opinion and trust the communication.

The ‘Model’

Kristjaan Speakman - Sunderland — IMAGO / Ross Johnston

While we are talking about trust, we have to talk about ‘the model’. I’m sorry, I know it’s deeply boring and triggering to many, but it’s simply unavoidable here.

Whether you agree with the model or not, it’s clear that Sunderland see it as the gateway to the Premier League. They are committed to it and that isn’t going to change. I think that much is obvious by now.

However, if they are going to do this (and they are), then trust is pivotal. That is, after all, what they are asking for from fans.

And generally, you have to say that fans have given it. Granted, there are those who disagree with it, but they are going with it and backing the young players and showing a lot of patience.

But any trust in the model is only as strong as trust in those implementing it, and every day that Kristjaan Speakman spends shackled to Michael Beale is another day of trust eroding away.

It was Speakman, after all, who made the decision to sack Mowbray and appoint Beale. That’s fine. People make mistakes, they can make misjudgements, even big ones, without it having to define them.

Speakman is also relatively new to Sunderland as a club and he perhaps didn’t realise the kind of fire he was playing with by going full-on LinkedIn at the expense of considering what Sunderland need in a leader from a practical and personality point of view.

I can be forgiving of a mistake, and I think most of us are the same.

What will seriously damage him, though, is him dragging Sunderland through this toxic swamp of his own creating rather than just accepting he got it wrong and doing something about it.

Every day he does it is another day of him burning what trust he has earned, what credit he has in the bank. The longer Beale, who is a product of ‘the model’ is here, the harder fans will push against it and the tougher it will become to sell it.

IF Sunderland and Speakman believe in this model (or strategy or process of whatever they want us to call it) so much, then they need to protect it from becoming irreparable collateral damage in the Beale implosion.

Then there is also the delicate state of relations between fanbase and club over the off-the-field issues to consider too. The derby ticketing debacle, the Black Cats Bar fiasco, the ticket office issues, the club shop limitations…

If these owners want to keep a crumb of credibility alive among supporters who are already seriously questioning their basic competence, they may find persisting with Michael Beale one ask too many.

The Mood

Sunderland fans angry — IMAGO / Focus Images

The kind of toxicity in the stadium and online towards Michael Beale is never a choice. It’s not a product of rationale. It’s an emotional thing, something primal, an expression of feeling and mood.

Some may scorn at that. Certainly, my social media mentions have contained a few people criticising the fans as if they’re just being spiteful for no reason.

Ultimately, though, a club creates its own mood which then shapes the passions of the fans to either take them with you or turn them against you, and Sunderland have done the latter.

It doesn’t have to be a tangible, rational thing either. The bottom line is that Michael Beale is making people feel miserable about their club.

He has taken a fanbase swimming in optimism and belief and turned them into one devoid of hope and joy. The atmosphere at the Stadium of Light for the last three matches, even the one Sunderland won, was flat as a pancake before turning to toxicity late in the Hull game.

Speaking from personal experience, I have stopped looking forward to matches, stopped believing in a brighter future for Sunderland, stopped feeling connected with my club and, frankly, stopped enjoying supporting my own club. The Stadium of Light has gone from being alive and thriving to being a morgue in terms of atmosphere.

That didn’t happen after Mowbray was sacked, or after any specific defeat. It happened the moment Beale walked through the door.

There is also a very obvious difference in demeanour of the players since Beale arrived too. They look how many, probably the majority of, fans feel: drained of enthusiasm, belief, joy and energy. That’s an enormous problem.

Sometimes a fit is just toxic by nature. Beale and Sunderland are like bleach and ammonia. Keep them apart and both are fine. Mix them and suddenly you’re getting your eyes and innards burned by chloramine vapour.

The Track Record

Michael Beale - Close to Sunderland appointment — IMAGO / Focus Images

Sometimes you can see a manager (head coach, whatever) failing but you can point to a track record to find belief he will come good.

A major problem here is that Beale doesn’t have one. Well, that’s not strictly true. He does have one. A bad one.

Essentially what we are seeing here is exactly what Rangers fans warned us about. They have told us from day one to expect what is happening now, because it’s exactly what they went through with Beale.

They told us about him sucking the joy out of watching their club, about the awful dull performances, about the constant arrogance, about the confused tactics that were as boring as unbuttered bread.

It would be different if he had been some roaring success somewhere, or even moderately successful. Not only has he not, but every bad thing we have been told about him has been vindicated inside a month.

When Beale was appointed, there was a sense among Sunderland supporters that he was unworthy of the job. You want to give someone time and a fair chance, but when the evidence is as overwhelming as it is with Beale, the jury isn’t going to take long to reach its verdict.

No way back

At this point, we arrive at probably the most compelling reason of all for Sunderland to sack Michael Beale.

While you can’t rule out anything in football, cast your mind back through your Sunderland and football memories. Can anyone remember a manager (head coach, whatever) who had created this much fan anger this quickly ever turning it around?

What would it actually take from here on in for people to change their mind and warm to Beale? Even if he beats Stoke next week, lose the next one and we are right back where we are now.

He would likely need an incredible winning run to even get himself back to neutral with fans and undo the damage to the relationship he has done, never mind start building a healthy one.

When the fans start calling for a manager (head coach, whatever) to be sacked, it pretty much always only ever goes one way because of destroyed trust never being able to be properly repaired.

Beale feels like a dead man walking at Sunderland already. History suggests that the die is now cast and the clock is already ticking down to his sacking. Only two questions really remain: when, and how much damage can he do before it happens.