Axed Sunderland boss Michael Beale reportedly lost the dressing room before his departure yesterday.
Beale oversaw just 11 Championship games in charge of Sunderland, winning four of them, drawing two, and losing five.
With four wins in 12 total games in charge of Sunderland (adding in the FA Cup defeat vs Newcastle United), Beale leaves with a 33.33% win rate, which makes him statistically the worst Sunderland boss since Chris Coleman who left in 2018.
Mike Dodds has been named interim boss until the end of the season; in three games as interim boss before Beale’s arrival, Dodds’ Sunderland beat West Brom and Leeds United, before losing 1-0 against Bristol City.
The Black Cats remain in 10th place of the Championship table and four points outside the top six.
Michael Beale lost Sunderland dressing room
Following Beale’s exit from the Stadium of Light yesterday, an emerging report from talkSPORT has claimed that the 43-year-old lost the dressing room before his departure.
Their report writes that the former QPR and Rangers boss was ‘understood to have lost the dressing room, with the Sunderland players particularly unhappy at being made to do extra training after a defeat, while the manager himself took the day off’.
Defeat against Hull City last month was particularly unimpressive, as well as Beale’s final defeats in games against relegation candidates Huddersfield Town and then Tony Mowbray’s Birmingham City.
Mike Dodds can replace the negativity
Beale’s tenure will not be remembered fondly by Sunderland fans.
Although results weren’t totally poor, a lot of the performances were, and some of Beale’s comments in pressers made for a tense relationship between him and the fanbase.
In particular, Beale’s comments about how his accent made him unfavourable among Sunderland fans and his sarcastic remarks about the club being in a ‘crisis’ after the Hull defeat, made for a feel of disconnect between club and fan.
So there’s plenty of mending to be done. But the Sunderland owners‘ decision to sack Beale suggests that they recognise they made a mistake, and they’ll know better than anyone if Beale had indeed lost the dressing room.
We may never know the full story, but going off how he presented himself in the media during his earlier weeks in charge, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he had made disconnections within the playing camp as well.
Dodds though is a very good coach and comes across as a very calm and humble person. He looks like a very safe bet until the end of the season, and he now has the chance to show Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and co what he can do.
Up next is a home game vs Swansea City.