Ricky Sbragia: I knew this job would be tough

Apr 10 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

It is a stark prospect but it has not taken Sbragia by surprise. “I knew from day one it would be difficult and even when we got off to a good start and people were saying ‘you’ll be safe’, I didn’t believe that,” the Sunderland boss said.

“I have not had a settled team, which has not helped us because of injuries, niggles and suspensions. We have lost games and lost points because we have been naive and we have tried to address that.

“We know we have seven really difficult games left but everyone in the dressing room believes we can do it.

“At least we have to go down fighting and that is important to go out there and those without shirt sleeves won’t roll them up but every one else will.” Some supporters have accused Sbragia of not being ambitious enough during his five months in charge.

That is not strictly true – the Sunderland boss was told when he took the job that keeping the team in the Premier League was the priority.

And it is worth remembering that the Black Cats were hovering around the bottom three when Roy Keane left, too.

His reaction to Richardson’s call for European football certainly illustrates a manager realistic about the limitations of his team.

“Europe? What, for his holidays?” Sbragia quipped.

“The three points were there to be won against Tottenham that day and we lost them. From there, we missed Kieran for two games, which was a massive blow to us.

“Maybe it has been nerves, but there is no breaking up. We are sticking together – they know what is required.

“I would love to put a finger on what went wrong but I could not do that, to be truthful.

“The smiles are still there and the dressing room is really good. There is a lot of belief we know what we have to do.

“It is going to be hard but we have to rely on ourselves, we have to get together to take the game to Man U and hope the crowd will get behind us and things go well for us.”