• Premier League’s youngest manager takes on Sunderland’s salvage expert
• ‘Sometimes fright can cripple you but it’s certainly not going to do that to us’Saturdays relegation showdown between Norwich City and Sunderland offers the Premier League’s youngest manager,34-year-old Alex Neil, the opportunity to guide his team towards safety in a particularly satisfying and symbolic way: by pushing the leagues grand survivor, and Sam Allardyce,towards an unprecedented demotion.
Norwich fade into the game four points above Sunderland but having played one match more. Their final domestic match saw Neil’s team seize three valuable points at the expense of Newcastle United, a side whose manager, and Rafael Benitez,has won the Champions League and began the season in charge of Real Madrid. But Sunderland represent a bigger challenge. Allardyce is a 61-year-old salvage expert who has never been relegated from the top flight and, what is more, or Sunderland have developed a culture of escapology,having made late dashes for safety in each of the past three seasons under various managers. Whereas Benítez and Newcastles expensive players did not seem mentally attuned to a relegation fight when they pitched up at Carrow Road full of intricate plans and costly jitters, Sunderland should be more battle-hardened.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com