Pundit outlines “lunacy” of decision to potentially sack Tony Mowbray at Sunderland

Following defeat in the play-off semi-final to Luton Town, Sunderland had reportedly been weighing up whether to sack manager Tony Mowbray this summer.

That news came according to talkSPORT who also believed that Salzburg’s Matthias Jaissle, Gerhard Struber, and Francesco Farioli were among those on the short-list to replace him.

Mowbray arrived at the Stadium of Light in August to take over from Alex Neil who departed for Stoke City at the very beginning of the Championship season.

Sunderland won 2-1 in the first leg of the play-offs, but Luton were too much for them at Kenilworth Road. They overturned the deficit and won 2-0 (3-2 on aggregate) to book their place in the final against Coventry at Wembley.

Despite his side crashing out of the play-offs to Luton, he has done an outstanding job in securing a top six place in the club’s first season back at second tier level, meaning they finished in the play-offs in back-to-back campaigns.

It wasn’t to be another promotion at Wembley for them this time, but the club are now considering his future with the club ahead of the 2023/24 campaign. However, that seems to have quietened down of late.

What have the pundits said about Mowbray’s Sunderland future?

Ali Maxwell spoke on Not The Top 20, and he explained the “weird” rumours surrounding Mowbray, he said: “In the 48 hours following the game, there were some quite weird Twitter rumours about Mowbray leaving. He sort of seemed to hint he was unhappy with this feeling of uncertainty. [It’s been] a couple of days since then, and everything seems to have calmed down.”

His co-host George Elek believes it would have been a crazy decision from the Sunderland to attempt to replace him. Elek has questioned whether the uncertainty was actually Mowbray looking for a new deal with Sunderland, he said: “It would be lunacy in my mind if Tony Mowbray were to leave the club by the club’s choice.”

“The cynic in me suggests this is a manager who’s stock is pretty high with the club after an unlikely play-off tilt. You know, is this just angling for a nice new contract just to ensure that he can stay at the club for the foreseeable?”

Elek explained that Mowbray is the right man for the job, he added: “I do think the framework at Sunderland is obviously different to most clubs. I think that’s probably the reason Alex Neil decided to trade Sunderland for Stoke, because he wanted more control.

“Finding a manager who is not only happy to work within that framework but has done so successfully I think is quite hard to find. I’d be really, really surprised if there was anything in those rumours at all about him moving on.”

Should Sunderland be considering sacking Mowbray?

As Elek says, it would be “lunacy” for Sunderland to sack him. He has more than earnt another season at the helm for the Black Cats.

Mowbray doesn’t need the level of autonomy which will make him a disruptive influence behind the scenes, and has coached this young side to punch above their weight. He could do the same again next season, and even take further strides forward.

The 59-year-old deserves the chance to have a full pre-season and summer window, as he was not even afforded that this season, which makes his achievement with the club all the more impressive.