Wes Brown has criticised Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman for one key decision he made earlier in the season.
Wes Brown spent five years with Sunderland following his departure from Manchester United – going from winning five Premier League titles to battling relegation.
The former defender went onto play for Blackburn Rovers and Kerala Blasters, before retiring in 2018.
Born in Manchester, Brown has always been a keen fan of the Red Devils, but it appears he also still keeps up with his former club in the Championship too.
The 44-year-old has criticised Sunderland for sacking Tony Mowbray back in December, having spent part of the 2016/17 season working under him at Ewood Park.
Despite managing only one appearance in the Championship under Mowbray, Brown is a big fan off him and believes he should have been given more of a chance at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland were wrong to sack their former manager
Speaking to Football League World, Brown said: “He’s a very experienced coach, where he’s been. He knows what he’s doing and Sunderland were getting there or thereabouts. I think nowadays, in football in general, the expectations are very high.
“Tony was putting on a good show, he was getting what he needed out of the players, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for. Yes, you want the transfers and key players brought in, but that doesn’t always happen.
“In hindsight, you can look at it and say yeah, he was let go too early, but we don’t know what’s happened behind closed doors, but when you’re being promised one thing, and something else is happening, it doesn’t necessarily work out.”
Was Tony Mowbray the man to take Sunderland forward?
Tony Mowbray left Sunderland with the seventh-highest win percentage in their history (40%) – though when Lee Johnson is top, you can only really take it with a pinch of salt.
Mowbray was excellent in his first campaign on Wearside and nobody can fault him for how far he took us, but there was no denying that we had been poor in the early stages of the current campaign and something needed to change.
Even if the form wasn’t a problem, the former coach’s relationship with Kristjaan Speakman seemed to be crumbling, and it was never going to be the sporting director who faced the chopping block.
Out of all the decisions Speakman has made, I do believe he made the right one in sacking Mowbray – at the time.
Of course, if we knew what was to come then nobody would have been calling for his exit, but that was more to do with the poor decisions that the club made afterwards.
If Sunderland had brought in Will Still before Christmas then there may have been no mention of Mowbray since.
It’s happened now though and there isn’t anything we can do about it until the summer – but if Speakman makes the same mistake again then he could be in big trouble.