Michael Beale stunning Sunderland rant deconstructed
In time-honoured Sunderland fashion, just when you thought things could only get better, it suddenly gets worse. We’re talking, of course, about Michael Beale’s latest attempt at public relations.
It felt like we had reached rock bottom when Beale dismissed Sunderland fans as ‘perplexing and bemusing outside noise’ this week.
Yet it seems like he was only just getting started. Later in the same press conference he embarked on a stunning rant about the supporters and their unhappiness since he took the helm.
His monologue contained false accusations, outright hypocrisy, blinding arrogance and a misreading of the situation so outrageous it was, at best, self-delusion on a frightening scale and at worst a deliberate attempt to damage the relationship between players and supporters.
So, let’s shine a light on it and see how the monologue stands up to a little scrutiny.
Who killed the feel-good factor?
"If anyone looks at my CV, I've worked for massive football clubs so I get the expectations, that's no problem.
"People didn't want me here in the first place. We can say afterwards that it's about style of this or style of that. Let's be honest and cut to the chase, people didn't want me so I'll come and do the work and ultimately we'll win games or we won't.
“That's the reality. There wasn't a feel-good factor about me coming in which is fine. You get on with the work and I'm not crying over it. I'm a big boy and I'm experienced.”
Sunderland Nation: No one can deny that no one wanted Beale here in the first place. That doesn’t mean that fans immediately downed tools and started to kick off, though. More than 41,000 fans turned up to his first game in charge and were rewarded with an absolute battering by Coventry.
It was literally so bad that Michael Beale had to apologise to fans afterwards. That result and the manner of it dealt an immediate blow to the feel-good factor. Failing to beat the worst team in the league was a blow to the feel-good factor. Watching bored out of our skulls in the second half against Preston when Beale’s team couldn’t even muster a shot on goal killed the feel-good factor. A frankly disgraceful on and off-pitch surrender to our bitterest rivals in the FA Cup killed the feel-good factor. Losing from a winning position at Ipswich hurt the feel-good factor. Watching a Hull performance so bad their own manager was almost embarrassed about it being good enough to beat us at home while Sunderland couldn’t create a single chance worthy of the name was a real feel-good factor dampener.
The feel-good factor was here before Beale arrived. Two very strong home wins and excellent performances against really good teams. In other words, it was Michael Beale, his football, results, bluster and belligerently belittling bulls**t that killed the feel-good factor.
Beale’s bewildering hypocrisy
"Personal things, I think when people are personal... if people want to criticise the way the team is playing, I'll take that. The last two games I actually think that we've played against two good football teams in this league, and they weren't better than us. That's my view and I'm allowed that view.
“I think if we had a bit more presence in the final third or one of the players that is injured wasn't, I think we'd have won at least one of, if not both of those games. That's my view and I'm allowed it.
"If it's about the job I'm doing then it's about the job, but if it's about anything else... listen I can't change my accent or where I'm from.
"That's where I'm from and I'm proud of where I'm from. If it's about football then fine but I feel I deserve a little bit more respect because my journey deserves that. But if people don't want to give it, fine, I have to get on with the job.
“If you spend 16 years at Chelsea and Liverpool then you know what expectation is and what it's like. I'm a young coach who went across to Brazil, so I'm not worried about taking on pressure and expectation. I've just been at a massive football club before I came to this massive football club.”
Sunderland Nation: Absolutely right here, and we offer nothing but condemnation to those aiming personal insults at Michael Beale.
Just to be absolutely clear, though, it’s not the majority by far. In fact it’s a very small minority. To suggest otherwise is akin to Steve Bruce saying it was ‘his roots’ and not his incredibly poor performance that Sunderland fans rebelled against.
IMAGO / PA Images
The real issue here, though, is the sheer hypocrisy of it all. Remember this is the same press conference in which he dismissed fans as and ‘outside thing’ and openly mocked their expressed views with sarcasm.
After all that he has the sheer nerve to say twice that HE is allowed his view? He has the temerity and gall to tell us about what HE deserves while attacking supporters?
We really couldn’t care less about what you think you deserve, Michael Beale. Want our respect? How about earning it. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Show us some, and we’ll give you some. Be honest with us rather than preaching to us about how performances we can see with our own eyes are poor are actually really good. When we express ourselves, don’t mock and dismiss it. Perhaps have the humility to show you understand that you are lucky to have Sunderland, not throw the names of other clubs you’ve coached at (at youth level) and expect us to be grateful to have you. Maybe behave like you think you’re a chapter in the Sunderland story, not that Sunderland are a chapter in the Michael Beale story.
What Sunderland fans deserve is far more important, frankly. We deserve a club we can enjoy supporting. We deserve a club who treat us with respect. We deserve to be heard and respected. We deserve to be able to tune into a press conference without fear of attack.
And if you’re looking for honesty – we had all that before Beale arrived. One thing we can all at least agree on is that what Sunderland don’t deserve is Michael Beale.
It’s never been about Mowbray
"I replaced a popular manager but I didn't sack him, did I? And he'd won two in nine before he left, so are we making out now that it was all perfect? I think over the seven games, I'd have liked us to have had a couple of better results so I can accept that. There's no doubt about that and I'm happy to be judged on the team on the pitch, but I still feel that I inherited a team two points off the play-offs, now it's three.”
Sunderland Nation: This isn’t about Tony Mowbray and no one is making out that it was perfect at all. This habit you have displayed of wanting to deliver a sermon to us on our own football club like you’re the expert and we’re some know-nowt rabble of spoilt ignorant children.
The consensus at the time was that while it was sad to see Mowbray go, you could see the reasons for it and he had been struggling for results.
But while it definitely wasn’t perfect – and no one is pretending it was – it was much better than the rubbish Beale has delivered on the pitch since taking over.
And that’s the key difference. Fans aren’t happy because they are not seeing improvement. Fans are unhappy because we can see things on the pitch clearly going backwards.
Attempted deflection onto players is deplorable
“We've been in the top six in the last couple of weeks, we've lost two tough games but I didn't think the performances were terrible - anyone who is saying they are, I can't get on board on that.
“I just think you're throwing negativity at the youngest team in the league with one of the lowest budgets in the league, I think you're throwing negativity at a team that doesn't deserve it.
“Sometimes I could say less and be less honest but that's not the sort of bloke I am, but I think people need to get behind this team.
"I spoke to Kyril and the club a lot before I came in about what they wanted and why they were making the change, and behind the scenes we're doing a lot of really, really good work.
"We haven't seen the harvest of that yet but I think it will. I've got a strong belief in this group of players. I've got a strong belief in this group of players, there's nothing to aim at them at all.
IMAGO / NurPhoto
“I look at a group of players who are giving everything and I think the last two games were really harsh on us. If we'd won one and lost one I think that would have been fairer, if we'd have drawn two that would have been fairer. Would the noise have been the same?
"It probably would because people didn't want me here in the first place, so I just have to get on with the job. If we continue to show the work we're doing behind the scenes, then we're going to win more games than not.
Sunderland Nation: We really, really can’t stress this enough: No one is throwing any negativity at the players or about the players and to suggest it is, to try and hijack the narrative to suggest otherwise is absolutely deplorable. It wasn’t ‘sold in the morning’ that was sang after the Hull game, it was ‘sacked in the morning.’
In fact, a huge part of the anger against Michael Beale is that fact that we know how good these players are. We know their quality, we know how much they can excite and thrill and have a right good go. They haven’t changed but what they are producing in the last seven games has – drastically. Therefore, we look at what has. We have a strong belief in the players. The thing we don’t believe in is Michael Beale.
That’s not even the worst part here, though. The worst part is that a Sunderland head coach is actively trying to pit players and against supporters. He is trying to cultivate an atmosphere of distrust and antagonism.
That relationship is vital, far too important to burn as fuel the fires of on head coach’s perpetual arrogance.
What honesty?
"I've got great support from Kyril and Kristjaan. We've very honest and frank each with other and we talk a lot about the day-to-day running of the club.
“I can't talk about why the club made the change, but there was obviously a reason for it and I'm working away at the areas that the board have asked me to improve."
Sunderland Nation: Hang on Michael, which one was it? Earlier you said: "I spoke to Kyril and the club a lot before I came in about what they wanted and why they were making the change,” and now you’re claiming you can’t talk about it.
Maybe Beale is being honest with us about how he has seen performances, but if so it’s hard to imagine he’s being honest with himself.
IMAGO / Focus Images
Perhaps the away win against Hull aside, there hasn’t been a single performance that has indicated an upward trajectory. Given the consistency of poor ones, they very much indicate a downward one.
There is a much wider issue about communication in general, though. Whether Beale likes it or not, no one is buying what he is selling. It’s not because of an accent either, it’s because he’s telling people that night is day and it makes them feel like someone is trying to con them.
That’s the problem Beale has. Whether he wants it or not, whether he thinks it’s fair or not, whether he agrees or not, that’s the problem he has. Well, it’s the first part of it at least.
The second part of the problem is that he seems to have this belief that he should be allowed to dictate a mass delusion. He says it’s so therefore everyone must believe it or they’re the problem, not the delusion.
That’s not going to work though. The temptation is to say that it’s not going to work at Sunderland, but the reality is it didn’t work at QPR or Rangers either.
That sounds an awful lot like a Micheal Beale issue rather than a Sunderland one.
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