Sunderland troubles down to 'ridiculous decision,' says top EFL pundit

Appointing or sacking Michael Beale wasn't where Sunderland went wrong, according to a top EFL pundit - it was sacking Tony Mowbray.

Top EFL Sky Sports pundit Jobi McAnuff says the real ‘ridiculous decision’ that Sunderland made was not hiring, or firing, Michael Beale but sacking Tony Mowbray in the first place.

Sunderland have gone from being one of the most positively talked-about clubs in the Championship a couple of months ago to generating nothing but negative headlines since.

For McAnuff, though, all the mistakes of the last 10 weeks has cascaded from the same point.

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“I think definitely in terms of the appointment [of Michael Beale] it just wasn’t one that went down well with Sunderland fans,” McAnuff told Sky Sports.

“It’s tough when you are going in after Tony Mowbray but having watched a lot of Sunderland there was a section of that fanbase that weren’t very happy with Mowbray.

“They thought maybe the football they played, which was really attacking, was too open at times and didn’t give them opportunities to win enough games.

“Certainly this man’s appointment didn’t appease any of those fans and it seemed it was going to be a matter of time. Obviously results weren’t fantastic, a really bad one in the cup against Newcastle. They just haven’t kicked on.”

The final straw for Sunderland was defeat at Birmingham, when Beale lost to the man he was meant to be a big upgrade on.

However, McAnuff believes that as soon as Beale didn’t get off to a good start, the writing was already on the wall.

“I think what he really needed was a really, really good start,” he said. “Losing to Tony Mowbray’s team (Birmingham) seemed quite ironic in his last game there.

“I just think for me it was a ridiculous decision by the board to replace Mowbray in the first place and they just haven’t really recovered.”

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