Sunderland fans know O'Neill makes a difference

SOCCER ANGLES:Fear and despondency marked the last days of Steve Bruce's reign. Now the stadium is light again

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, the Stadium of Light, Sunderland, just along from the Charlie Hurley suite: Martin O’Neill is making his official bow as the new manager of Sunderland. To the first question at O’Neill’s press conference, he replies with one of his own – “What do you mean by that?” We can read too much into small details but, there and then, there seemed to be a shift in tone at Sunderland.

Everyone was immediately on their toes in a manner they had perhaps not been after Steve Bruce had settled in.

Bruce is an agreeable, likeable man – as is O’Neill – but the Ulsterman-Irishman-Derryman also possesses an edge. He can be crisp and dry.

But O’Neill can be hard to fathom and distant. He said yesterday he has been “in hibernation”. It is why a question such as ‘Why Sunderland, why now?’ comes to be asked. Yes, he supported Sunderland as a boy, but that was 50 years ago.

After his initial response, which may have been even more assertive were TV cameras not rolling, O’Neill displayed another facet to him: charm. It is not, as his former assistant and friend of 40 years, John Robertson says, “manufactured”, it is sincere and convincing. Why here, why now? The opportunity presented itself, there was no mystery.

But charm can also exit the room quickly and should Sunderland lose at home to Blackburn Rovers tomorrow in O’Neill’s first game in charge, one imagines it will be replaced a burst of anger followed by a surge of determination.

As of now, however, O’Neill is not contemplating defeat. In that trademark style of his, by yesterday morning he had his tracksuit bottoms tucked into his socks. He was off to work and it was with a skip in his step.

It was August of 2009 when O’Neill decided he had had enough of Aston Villa – and vice-versa. The two parties had reached a fork in the road after finishing sixth in three consecutive seasons. In the last Villa had reached the League Cup final and FA Cup semi-final and accumulated 64 points in the Premier League. Villa, it seems, thought the cost of that return was too much.

As a reference, Sunderland had 47 points last season. That took them to 10th place; at the moment they have 11 points from 14 games and will be in the relegation zone if they lose to Blackburn.

But the end at Villa is far enough away for the future at Sunderland to have O’Neill revelling in his return. His mood was such that when he was asked yesterday about what he would like his Sunderland team to look like by the end of his three-year contract, he replied using the “B” word – Barcelona.

“I always come back to the way Barcelona play, and I think teams look to that,” O’Neill said to a surprised audience. “It’s a long way in the future, but you’d love to keep that in the back of your mind and think you could eventually have a team that could come out and play like that. Over the course of time, people will probably throw that back at me.

“Over the last couple of years, Arsenal have been very easy on the eye and it would be lovely to play a brand of football that would excite the crowd. But we need to win some football matches and I suppose at the moment pragmatism has to be the order of the day. We have to win games.”

Pragmatism gets a bad name if dressed in a Stoke City shirt, but it is likely to be that quality which gets Sunderland to 40 points next May. That must be the primary aim. Given that in their last 38 Premier League matches, Sunderland have 38 points, it is not straightforward.

“You’re probably in a better position than me to judge whether Sunderland are in a false position or not,” O’Neill said.

There is an acceptance that Sunderland are better than they have shown, yet tomorrow’s visitors, Blackburn, a place below them in the division, have five players who, arguably, would get in Sunderland’s current team: Chris Samba, David Dunn, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Junior Hoillet and Yakubu.

Bruce is miffed that his tenure has been snuffed out. He could say that in going from 13th in his first season to 10th last season, there is an encouraging pattern. The problem with that is that along the way Sunderland had too many flaws and tomorrow, even at kick-off, the Stadium of Light would have had an atmosphere containing some fear and no little loathing had Bruce been manager still.

Now that will be different. And if it is as fresh as O’Neill then Sunderland may turn a corner.

“I was thinking about how the game might have evolved during my time away, and the answer is that I probably don’t know,” O’Neill said.

“I’ve been watching a lot of football, but not live football. I pretty much went into hibernation for a while and watched a lot of football on TV and it’s not the same.” He had taken one of his two daughters to watch Arsenal-Fulham recently “and after three or four minutes, she said: ‘Isn’t it great to watch a football game where there’s no pressure?’ “Little did she realise that a fortnight later she’d be throwing herself back into it again. It was great to see the game live, and the matches I covered with ITV were great to get out and see live, but watching it again as a manager, rather than just watching it for pure enjoyment – that might tell you the difference.”

Martin O’Neill makes a difference. Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City, Celtic and Villa know that. It is knowledge Wearside wishes to embrace here and now.

NOBLE START: McClean impresses O'Neill as reserves beat Manchester Utd 6-3

O’NEILL took in his first Sunderland game at Wolves last Sunday and his second was on Thursday night. The club’s reserves beat Manchester United’s 6-3, with Ryan Noble scoring four. But O’Neill was equally impressed with former Derry City player James McClean. The 22-year-old moved to Sunderland for €410,000 in August.

“I’ve been really impressed with him,” O’Neill said of McClean. “He gives you absolutely everything. Last night in the howling wind he was picking it up. He lost it a couple of times, but then came on really strongly. He’s got a great attitude and I couldn’t fault him. He’s as courageous as they come and he’s quite physically strong at the minute. Hopefully, he’ll try to force his way into the side. Now, the Premier League would be very new to him, but even so he was impressive.”