I'm ambivalent. He must have done something wrong to go 10 defeats on the trot (including cups) and something right to recover from that by the time he left. Personally, I don't think we'd have gone up if he'd stayed, there was some sort of special chemistry with Hecky and the squad that turned a decent side into an invincible one.
I've watched them under every manager since Johnnie Steele. My recollections of the Ritchie era are of a team that were pretty lucky to get promoted, but I wouldn't call them boring. Whatever subsequently happened, Johnson appeared to have swallowed the 'Modern Guide to Coaching' manual whole. The chapter on 4-4-2 is about the same length as the one Brian Clough wrote entitled 'What The Average Football Club Chairman Knows About Football'. By the way, did you watch them under Mel Machin?
Re: I'm ambivalent. Sunderland have 2 chances of staying up. (I'm not in any way saying they should do either, I'm just stating at fact): 1. Stick with Moyes & back him in the transfer window to change the team. 2. Sack Moyes, reappoint Sam Allerdyce & spend very little.
He is a LUCKY manager! Which might be what you want He did OK at Oldham enough to get the Barnsley job - we werent doing great and had had a tough run of fixtures we sacked the manager and our caretakers turned things round a bit, got the side onto a winning streak - LJ came in and left well alone and we had a decent run to the end of the season. He made some changes - the football wasnt great and we went onto a downwards path losing the 10 games and being bottom of the table in mid December. Probably the nadir was the FA cup defeat at Altringham almost every other club would have sacked him by then. We were having the discussion about keeping sacking managers and although I think they should be given time - I'd had enough and would have been happy to see him go. He then "signed" Adam Hammil - I doubt he had anything to do with it but he injected something into the team, that along with a couple of good loan signings in January the team improved, we won a few league games and got to the JPT final. In fact the Semi final was LJ's last game. He then repayed the loyalty by going to Bristol. We kicked on under Hecky and definitely played better football to watch than under LJ Having said all that he is doing a good job at Bristol. Not even sure he would take the Sunderland job if offered. He may well have more chance of getting Bristol to the Prem than keeping Sunderland in it
I haven't read any of the other responses that you've received, but I can guarantee that some have said he's the worst manager we've ever had. He isn't He isn't even the worst manager we've had in the last 5 years. What I will say is that he's quite an odd character. He's a proud southerner for one. He made a point of saying that Northerners are obsessed with playing 2 strikers. He took us on our worst run in 70 years or something, and also had a hand in our 2 best winning streaks in as long. He likes to tinker, even when it's evidently clear that it doesn't need changing. He's stubborn and won't admit he's wrong when he clearly is. The feeling I got when he left was very much of indifference. He wasn't a bad manager by any stretch, but despite the massive variation in our form under him, which was either fantastic or appalling, no middle ground, his time here was pretty unforgettable. His own signings were largely ineffective and uninspiring, with his best players being the ones recruited by Danny Wilson prior to him. However the calibre of player he will be looking as as Sunderland manager would be very different. I believe you could do a lot better personally for the budget you'll have. Bristol City fans may give you a different opinion, but he wasn't particularly great with us, he wasn't particularly bad either. #TeamsLikeBarnsley
stick with moyes even if you go down and rebuild for next season .get shut of the dead wood, you only have to look at newcastle moyes is not the problem,if not then big sam,if you look at barnsley we were in a simlar position we went down to L1 and rebuilt
This is my first choice mate but at the moment we are on course to go down with 8 points He is going to have to show quite a bit more than he has done already or else he will get the chop whether I want it or not
Johnson was a young inexperienced guy making mistakes and plenty of them with us. He speaks well and works well with individual players. I would have thought Sunderland could do better but I can see the attraction of signing a young vibrant manager on board. The best thing about him is his luck. He is definitely a lucky manager. Signed Hammill because he was told to. Changed the playing system because he was told to do so. Survived the worst run of results and worst football I've ever seen us play and still came out of it with a 'better' job. There's a skill in that.
Love the Hourihane can't play in a midfield 2 argument that still persists. He did prior to signing for us and as soon as we changed the system he excelled. But best not to let the facts get in the way of a your opinion. Best just to say I was wrong sometimes isn't it?
Lee Johnson is the worst manager I have had the misfortune to witness at Oakwell. This based on my own observations of the absolutely dire football and the fact that he went on a nine game winless run and an eight match losing run in less than eight months. He's a disloyal **** too. If he ends up in the Premier League is in an even worse state than I thought.