Straight talking Ricky Sbragia clears the air

Apr 17 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

RICKY Sbragia believes a “clear-the-air” meeting with his under-achieving players has helped rid Sunderland of the complacency that has dogged some of their recent performances.

Sbragia will never apply the kind of hairdryer treatment that he witnessed former boss Sir Alex Ferguson using to such excellent effect, but he was angered enough by recent performances to call a players’ get-together last week.

During it he called for a response from the members of the squad that he felt were not pulling their weight, and cleared the air with others over recent poor displays.

And, in another sign of how much responsibility he hands to his players, the Scot left them to conduct the rest of the meeting after he and assistant Neil Bailey had set out the standards they must strive to keep for the rest of the season.

The response he received for the Manchester United match was satisfactory, but Sunderland were on a hiding to nothing against the world, European and domestic champions.

So Sbragia is demanding a performance at least as committed for the visit of relegation-haunted Hull in a contest that the Sunderland boss has branded “must-win”.

The Sunderland manager refused to single out individuals during the course of the meeting, but the performances of Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cissé have tailed off over recent weeks – something that Sbragia has noted.

Cissé was certainly livelier for the Manchester United game, while Jones (pictured) scored a predatory equaliser, suggesting they did take the message on board.

“We had a chat last Tuesday and we spoke some words as a group on what we needed to do and we said what we felt and the players agreed with it that we’d under-achieved. Sometimes you need a clear the air,” said Sbragia.