Simon Grayson interview: Why it all went wrong for him at Sunderland

It is four weeks since Simon Grayson was sacked as Sunderland manager following a 3-3 home draw against Bolton. Adam Bate caught up with him to find out why it went so badly wrong for him at the Stadium of Light and what he hopes to do next…

Simon Grayson looks smart and upbeat as he walks into Sky Studios. He is fresh from taking in a Liam Gallagher gig and there has been a trip to see the Killers too. Grayson is making the most of what he hopes will be a brief spell out of football. „I have only been out of work for eight weeks in 32 years so it is in the blood for my sins,“ he tells Sky Sports.

He is in the building for an appearance on EFL Matters alongside David Prutton, whom he managed at Leeds, and is reminiscing about the 26 miles he covered in the summer when he got involved in Jeff Stelling’s charity walk for Prostate Cancer UK. „It was the hardest thing I have ever done,“ says Grayson. But surely managing Sunderland comes a close second?
„It was a great opportunity to move to the next step in my career,“ he says. „I have no regrets. I did not want to look back six months down the line and wish I hadn’t taken the job. Like many managers before me, and I see Chris [Coleman] has already said the same, I thought that I would be the one to turn Sunderland’s fortunes around.

„When you look at the list of managers who have gone there – Steve Bruce, Martin O’Neill, Roy Keane, Dick Advocaat, Gus Poyet and many more who I have probably forgotten – nobody has really turned it around completely and made the club successful. There is an underlying current of something but what it is nobody has found out yet.“
Poyet once suggested that there was something at the „very core“ of Sunderland that was holding the club back, but none of Grayson’s predecessors encountered quite the mess that he inherited. Relegated with only 24 points after a decade clinging on in the Premier League, the squad desperately needed an overhaul and the mood was miserable.

Grayson had proved himself a capable performer in the Championship but he could not make an impact. Indeed, Sunderland are still waiting for a first league win at the Stadium of Light in 2017 and after only one win anywhere in his first 15 league games in charge he was sacked with the club languishing in the relegation zone.

The 47-year-old Yorkshireman has experience of turning clubs around – he did just that in his previous job at Preston North End. But this was different. „There were comparisons but this was just on a different scale really,“ he admits. „When I went to Preston I could galvanise it a lot quicker because there was not so much baggage with the players.

„We tried to do what we have always tried to do – turn the training ground into a vibrant place where players would enjoy coming to work. We did that but there was this hangover that had been there for so many years at the Stadium of Light. After the first pass goes astray there is an anxiety that creeps in. It goes back a long way.

„I think we had a good squad, it was more of a mental issue with some of the players. One of the problems at Sunderland is that there are seven or eight of them who are still suffering the consequences of what has happened over the past two or three years. They need to overcome that hurdle in order to turn the negativity into positivity.

„The new players were fine because they were not having to carry that baggage with them. But as the results continued, they got dragged into that negativity that was around the place. Eradicating that mental hangover for an individual is difficult. If you are trying to do that with seven or eight players it is a really tough task.“

Some of the new signings made an impression. Lewis Grabban has already scored 10 goals on loan from Bournemouth and Grayson remains an admirer of Aiden McGeady’s talents. Despite selling well over £40m worth of talent and spending only £1.2m on their replacements, he is insistent that he has left a decent squad for his successor.

But he also knows mistakes were made too. His struggle to settle upon his best team did not help the cause. „We were not able to get a consistency of team selection,“ he says. „The goalkeepers, for example, we kept chopping and changing them. In an ideal world you want your back five to be the same week in and week out and we were not able to do that.
„We had a lot of injuries and Chris has already suffered the same [with Duncan Watmore facing a long spell out following a cruciate knee ligament injury]. That was a factor in our results, but basic mistakes were costing us as well and affecting our confidence. Ultimately you are judged on your results and they were not good enough.“

That is the blunt reality and one wonders where Grayson’s next opportunity will come. He has already turned down one job offer with a view to returning at Championship level. He hopes that the achievement of winning promotion with Blackpool, Leeds, Huddersfield and Preston will not be erased from the memory because of his brief struggle at Sunderland.

„Some managers look for a quick impact but I try to build football clubs,“ he says. „That is my style and that is how I work. I am not a firefighter. I had three years at Blackpool, three at Leeds, and four and a half at Preston. Every one of those clubs I have left in a better state and that comes from having a long-term approach going right the way through the clubs.

„So in an ideal world, I would like to get back in at Championship level. That is where I have shown I am capable of managing. Unfortunately, I am going to have to see somebody lose their job but we all know as managers that they are the circumstances. I am back watching games and I am itching to get back in. We will just have to see what develops.“
Euro Soccer Bonus

Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.

This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.

The maximum bonus that you can receive is €100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.

If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:

Bet Type Bonus

14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus €100,000 or currency equivalent. Euro Soccer Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.

If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.

If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.

Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.

In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.

All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.

bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.