Time for Black Cats to repay the faith Sbragia has shown

Apr 18 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

Ricky Sbragia put the smiles back on Sunderland’s players’ faces – but there is nothing amusing about their league position. Mark Douglas reports.

ONCE again, Ricky Sbragia will place ultimate faith in his players as his Sunderland stewardship reaches a potential watershed this afternoon.

“Player power” is a phrase scarred by so many negative connotations in the millionaires’ playground that is the Premier League – but it is a philosophy that Sbragia has stuck to through the peaks and troughs of his short time in charge at the Stadium of Light.

Treating the players as adults has been his strategy since the day Roy Keane walked out on the club, but it is more difficult to maintain when the team is drastically under-performing.

As Sbragia acknowledged this week, it is even harder when your team is sliding closer to the Championship on the back of five straight defeats and handsomely paid “big names” are failing to justify their reputations with match-winning performances.

Even with the noose tightening around his neck, however, the Sunderland boss is unapologetic about shunning the hard-line approach and investing faith in his players. Just last week, he allowed his squad to conduct their own “clear the air” meeting after the Sunderland boss had given a short speech on their shortcomings over recent weeks.

That is not to say that Sbragia indulges the whims and egos of his players. Bundling troublemakers El-Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda out of the January transfer window is proof of that.

But he believes management is about “creating an environment that allows his players to succeed and thrive” – not handing out orders or following a hard-line.

That shift from Keane’s distant and authoritarian style has been welcomed by the players, who’s immediate response was a marked improvement in results and performances. But now, with the “Sbragia bounce” having long since dissipated, they must repay his faith in them with the Black Cats Premier League status hanging by a thread.

The pressure could make for a tense afternoon at the Stadium of Light, but Sbragia remains calm and collected.

“The players are the ones that do it all,” he said. “If they’re successful everyone in the club is successful so I try to give them everything they need for the games and then they have to deliver.