THE DRUMAVILLE CONSORTIUM

Sunderland should have been a nightmare. It had seven or eight Irish owners! There’d be a lot of interference; they’d all feel they owned the club. I’d have too many people to answer to.

But it was the opposite. Because there were seven or eight of them, no one felt he was in charge. Niall Quinn was the front, the public face. The Sunderland fans loved him and he answered to the owners. The fact they were Irish turned out to be fine. You could have a bit of banter with them. They trusted myself and Niall to get on with it; we were the footballing people.

.... They sent a helicopter over to Manchester and flew me to Dublin. They were trying to impress me, of course. I was crossing the Irish Sea in a helicopter, but I was wondering ‘what am I in for here?’

I’m not sure where the meeting took place. Some estate, a manor house outside Dublin. All the lads in the Drumaville Consortium were there, and Niall was too. As the helicopter landed I saw that he was a few feet away, beside the helipad, waiting with other people. I got out of the helicopter, kissed the ground and blessed everybody.

‘The Pope has arrived.’ No I didn’t. I got out of the helicopter, walked across to Niall and we shook hands.

... I went in and met the lads. It was all very casual. I had a suit on but I didn’t feel like I was being interviewed. I had a suit on but I it was all very casual and I didn’t feel like I was being interviewed or being put under any pressure.

They asked me would I be interested in the job, I said, ‘I’m not sure what I want to do yet, lads. I will have a think about it. They were talking about what various players were earning, contracts and wages, and about getting players in and out.

I was going ‘one step at a time; let me have a think about it.’

ON HIS FIRST MANAGEMENT JOB

Everything fell in to place. I got a brilliant contract, over a million a year, a lot of money for a Championship job – and my first job ...

... I’ve learned since then that, contractually, the day you take over at a club is the day you start to leave. Most of the contract details are about what happens at the end; you’re already negotiating your settlement.

ON HIS FIRST DAY TRAINING AT SUNDERLAND

We took training and we started looking at staff and players. I thought, ‘my God’ there’s a lot of work to be done.’ They weren’t great, they were nothing like a promotion team. But they were near the bottom of the table, so there was only one way to go. I loved it from there on. From the beginning I thought it was brilliant.

HIS FIRST TRANSFER WINDOW

We were paying decent money for that level. Not thirty or forty thousand a week but twelve or fifteen – something like that. Graham Kavanagh and Dave Connolly were at Wigan and that helped. We weren’t dealing with six different clubs, for six players. We had the two lads from Wigan, Ross Wallace and Stan Varga were at Celtic, and Liam Miller was being released by Manchester United.

It was a great lift. You go out training with one group of players and the next day five or six international players come with you. It was Niall who made the call and did the deals.

DWIGHT YORKE

I rang Dwight Yorke. It was seven in the morning when I picked up the phone at the training ground because he was in Australia, with Sydney FC; he was their marquee player. So I rang him.

‘All right Yorkie?’ I’d got on well with Yorkie at United. He had the penthouse in Sydney Harbour and the Lamborghini, all the women. A hard life. But I knew he loved football. He loved the game and he liked a challenge.

I said, ‘d’you fancy coming back to Sunderland?’ And he said, you want me to leave this? You want me to leave ******* Australia?’ And he said, ‘yeah I fancy it.’

HIRING AND FIRING

I had to let some people go. It was horrible. I still feel a bit guilty about it. But later, at Ipswich, I’d feel guilty about keeping some people on. Guilt comes with the job.

SUNDERLAND FANS

The Sunderland fans travelled in big numbers and they were noisy. They were as passionate as the United and Celtic fans. I applauded them - sometimes the applause is an apology – and I mentioned them regularly at the press conferences throughout the season ...

... The crowds were unbelievable. It made me feel like I’d definitely made the right decision. We were winning, and the crowds were steadily getting bigger. We’d gone from 14,000 to eventually 42,000. We weren’t doing anything amazing. We were up to sixth (in the Championship).

ON COMMUTING TO SUNDERLAND

We were trying to find a school. A Catholic school was important to use because the kids were already at one; the schools were good and we liked their message. We were looking at houses but we couldn’t find a school. Weeks went by, then months, and my family hadn’t moved.

In the end, the family stayed in Manchester. The travel wasn’t killing me; I like driving – I like driving late at night or early in the morning. I’d have two or three days at home. I’d work hard at Sunderland and then I’d go home to people who didn’t really care too much about my professional life.

ON MEETING UP WITH MICK McCARTHY

I said I was sorry about what happened in Saipan. I’m not sure I had anything to apologise for. But you try to move on. But that was that. It was important and I’m glad it happened.

MISSING THE BUS

The next game was away at Barnsley. And three players missed the bus – Stokesy (Anthony Stokes), Tobias Hysen and Marton Fulop. They rang us: ‘We’re stuck in traffic.’ I said, ‘well we can’t wait any longer , we’re off.’ I understood they were stuck in traffic, but that was not good to us. So we left without them.

That was another message I was sending out. Lateness was not an issue at the club – bad habits. Football is about good habits ...

... The Barnsley three were at the training ground early on Monday to bring the milk. I’d called them in for a meeting. I said ‘look lads, you were out of order. But it was no big deal. You’re not going to be made to suffer any more. You’ll all be training with the first team.’

THE CHAMPIONSHIP

People often say that the Championship is one of the toughest leagues in the world. I won it as a manager – I have to say that. No one else ever does.

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

“The sports psychology is useful, but in moderation. The lad who went to the World Cup with the England team, Dr Steve Peters, has written a book called The Chimp Paradox, about the chimp in your head. The chimp is running the show. I tried to read it - I'm open-minded - but my chimp wouldn’t let me.”

“I wasn’t a great one for motivational videos or talks but, before we got off the bus at Goodison Park we showed the team a clip from Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino’s speech at the end. He’s an American football coach. His speech was about endurance, keeping at it — ‘On this team we ?ght for that inch.’ So we went out and lost 7-1.”

INTO THE PREMIER LEAGUE

“From a tactical point of view, we should probably have been more cautious. But what had got us promoted, and what gave us a bit of early success, was having a go. You need a feel for your club, and Sunderland was all about having a go. Sunderland really did suit my personality at that time. I was up for it and full of energy and I felt that the Sunderland fans were right behind me.”

GREG HALFORD

“I thought, ‘Not for me.’ But I signed him! I was ?nding out slowly that certain players suit certain clubs. And Greg Halford wasn’t a Sunderland player. Sunderland people are hard-working, roll your sleeves up - I appreciate that even more since I left - and Greg wasn’t that type of player. He wasn’t a roll your sleeves up, work your socks off player. He was about dealing with the ball, coasting through the game, and just doing enough. He’s had a decent career. I saw him at Forest recently and he played okay.”

MICHAEL CHOPRA

“Michael Chopra came in. The fact that he was a Geordie was an issue for some, but not for me. He did a job - we got a good year out of him. We paid ?ve and a half million, and he scored me seven goals. That’s the madness of Premiership football. A million a goal - but his goals kept us up. That was what we paid for. A player worth ?fteen million, who might have got us more goals, wouldn’t have come to us in our ?rst season up. We were learning that quickly. I’d say to players we wanted, ‘It’s not Australia.’ But Sunderland is pretty bleak. So is Newcastle, but they were in a position to pay a lot more than us. I’m a footballing man; I didn’t really care where I was. But others look at the whole package.”

DARREN BENT

“We were after Darren Bent. I still think that if we’d bought Darren Bent then, at the start of the ’07—’08 season, -I’d still be the Sunderland manager: He’d have got the goals. But it was too much money. They bought him later, after I’d left, because they’d had another year in the Premiership so they had more money to spend. The longer the club stays in the Premiership, the bigger an attraction it is to players, and the club can start to afford the higher wages.”

MAKING A MARK

“I wanted to leave my mark at Sunderland, but I don’t think I quite did. I did okay but it wasn’t good enough for me. We were promoted, and we averaged a point per game in the Premiership, which - on paper - a lot of managers would take. But I wanted more. We - I - could have done better.”