THE Sunderland side of six years ago used to think they had it tough under Roy Keane. You suspect after a month or two under Paolo Di Canio, the current crop will tell their predecessors they didn't know how lucky they were.

Di Canio's former chief executive at Swindon Town, Nick Watkins, described the Italian's preferred style of working as “management by hand grenade”, and yesterday, at his introductory press conference, we got a first glimpse of just what might happen when he decides to release the pin.

Spiky, confrontational, unwavering when it comes to the validity of his own beliefs, Di Canio is clearly not someone to be taken lightly.

“I don't want to judge the job that other people have done, but it will be different with me,” said the new Sunderland manager, before adding just for good measure, “With me it will be different.”

Just how different was apparent from his very first training session, with senior sources claiming the players were taken aback by the forcefulness of Di Canio's personality and the immediate extent of his demands.

Clearly, this is not going to be an easy ride, with Martin O'Neill's successor repeatedly claiming that hard work is the only way to elicit an improvement in performance.

“I went down the day before I signed and he explained some of the stuff that went on, and I thought, 'Really?',” said former Sunderland midfielder Tommy Miller, who played under Di Canio at Swindon in the first half of this season. “You rarely get days off. He doesn't like that English mentality of days off, he believes in working hard to get fit.

“The first six to eight weeks were tough and you had to be mentally strong, but as you got further down the line, you could see the reason for him doing it. You can't knock his ideas because they worked.”

But while League One players were willing to buy in to Di Canio's labour-intensive, authoritarian ethos, will his approach work in the more rarefied environment of the Premier League?

Is it possible to browbeat multi-millionaires into a succession of training drills that eat into what might otherwise have been their spare time?

Keane, another stickler for punctuality and 100 per cent effort on the training ground, thought so, but while his arrival had an instant impact on a Sunderland side that was in the Championship, by the time he departed, he was overseeing a dressing room that had fractured alarmingly.

“People say managing in the Premier League is different, but I don't know what university of football management they went to in order to say that,” countered Di Canio. “I have to read my players and I have a different way for different players.

“You have different egos in the Premier League, but you could have a player with 400 games behind them at Manchester United alongside a young player who is still learning the game. They will be very different.

“What won't change from League Two or One to here will be the discipline and dedication. We will have to work so hard during the week, otherwise the product we are delivering will not be a good one. That is the way to deliver success.”

But what about the explosive reactions to those perceived to have strayed from the correct path in the past? Di Canio's 21 months at Swindon were littered with examples of arguments, bust-ups and, on more than one occasion, acts that strayed into the realm of physical violence. Is that kind of behaviour sustainable in the Premier League?

What about, for instance, the now infamous incident when Di Canio substituted his goalkeeper, Wes Foderingham, just 20 minutes into a 4-1 defeat, before angrily branding him “one of the worst players I have ever seen”. Could you imagine Simon Mignolet or Keiren Westwood tolerating that?

“If it is good to win the game, then why not do it?” said Di Canio. “I remember a few years ago that Mourinho took off (Ricardo) Carvalho, who was his friend, because he was fed up with the way he was approaching the game. Everyone was saying he was a fantastic manager because he changed things after 20 minutes and they won the game.

“As a manager, I live with my players and study them. That way, you can tell when something is wrong.

“I want to be clear. In that game, Wes conceded the first goal. It was a mistake, but I didn't sub him. He conceded a second goal, then started blaming the defensive line. When you have people arguing and blaming each other, you have to make a decision, and the decision was to change the goalkeeper because he was the one blaming four other players.

“You can't change four players, but anyway those four players were right. He was in the wrong, but they didn't blame him.

“It looked like Di Canio just subbed a player because he was angry. No, there was a reason and the results I got after that were excellent. Wes became a better athlete and a better person. He was only 19, but he became the best keeper in League One, so who was right? The media or Paolo Di Canio?”

And what of the two or three occasions when he was pictured kicking his Swindon players up the backside, images that have been thrust back into the limelight this week?

“I remember doing it with James Collins when we won 4-3 at Stoke,” said Di Canio. “He is a young player and because of previous experience, I know that after he scores, he relaxes.

“He thinks, 'I have scored my goal and my job is done'. He came over to the bench to celebrate with me, but the first thing I said to him was, 'Now you must start to run everywhere'.

“He didn't really understand, so I kicked his bottom. If it is necessary to win the game, why not?”

More Sunderland AFC News