Sunderland Appoint Gus Poyet As New Manager

by Joseph Dempsey

BBC. The Uruguayan replaces the sacked Paolo Di Canio and becomes the Black Cat's sixth boss in just five years. The North East club are bottom of the Premier League without a win this season and fired Di Canio last month, with Poyet one of the bookmaker's early favourites for the position at the Stadium of Light. Poyet, 45, was himself sacked by former club Brighton back in June, and will bring his former Seagulls backroom staff Mauricio Taricco and Charlie Oatway with him. Prior to Poyet's appointment, Sunderland's senior professional development coach Kevin Ball has been overseeing affairs as interim manager, and had also asked to be considered for the position. However, chairman Ellis Short said:

"We analysed a wide range of candidates and believe that Gus's track record, experience, commitment and passion make him the right man to take us forward."
Poyet, the former Chelsea and Tottenham player, earned 26 caps for his country during his playing days and started his coaching career in England as assistant to Dennis Wise at Swindon Town in 2006. He later moved on to Leeds United before joining former club Tottenham after one year at Elland Road, as assistant manager to Juande Ramos. In 2009 he became Brighton manager and took the Seagulls to promotion from League One before reaching the Championship Play-Offs last season, but saw his side defeated by Crystal Palace back in May. Poyet has no experience of management in the topflight, but has previously made no secret of his ambition to manage in the Premier League. He was recently quoted as saying:
"I planned that, over the first matches of this season, I would pay a lot of attention to the teams I thought could be in trouble. "Of course, I watch Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, but there was a group of teams who, if they didn't start well, I thought I could have a chance. "I was watching Sunderland a lot. People were talking a lot about them in the summer because of Paolo and how many new players they had, so I have seen quite a lot of them."

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Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.