7. The Entire Sunderland Dressing Room Wanted Him Sacked
To put a twist on an old saying, you an take away a man's hope, a man's pride, a man's dignity, but you can never take away a man's right to have ketchup with his food. After Di Canio had remodelled Sunderland in his own image, the surreal demands he had begun to put on his players forced the team's squad to breaking point. The final straw coming when he allegedly planned to start throwing player's mobile phones into the North Sea if they were caught using them at training. Outraged, a number of the squad marched into chairman Ellis Short's office and demanded the Italian be removed and replaced with someone who was less like the baddy from a children's cartoon. Hours later their wish was granted and Di Canio's contract was terminated. He'd later go on to brand the likes of Lee Cattermole, Phil Bardsley, John O'Shea, and Steven Fletcher as "rotten" and "cowards", and claim that without him at the helm Sunderland were doomed to face yet another relegation fight. Capital One Cup final appearance aside, he might have a had a point.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
