Fan Letters: Would appointing one of Phil Parkinson OR Nigel Pearson inspire Sunderland fans?

Dear Roker Report,

I don't know anyone wanting Phil Parkinson at the helm. I just remember him sitting the Hull players on the centre circle embarrassing them and wagging his finger. Apparently they didn't respect him at all.

Not sure how true that is but others like Keane, Ainsworth, Stendel, Adkins, Pearson and Phillips would be welcomed.

Paul Conn

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Erm... Paul. That wasn’t Phil Parkinson, mate. WRONG PHIL!

Parkinson’s time at Hull was a disaster, however, and is the one major blot on his copybook.

I can to a degree understand why some people don’t like the idea of Parkinson. He’s never managed above the Championship and his football apparently isn’t particularly nice, but he is effective and his record in League One is good. He got Colchester promoted, he got Bolton promoted and he got Bradford out of their malaise in League Two and back to the third tier in the same season that he also led the fourth-tier side to the League Cup final.

Personally I feel that there are a few things worth considering with Parkinson. Firstly, the fact that he managed at this level as recently as a few months ago - he should be fully clued up on the teams in this league, the players at this level, and what it takes to cope with League One week in, week out. Secondly, I think the size of the clubs that he’s managed is relatively important. Bolton, Hull and Bradford are not big clubs like we are but they’re in that tier just below, and have all played Premier League football. Even lower down the chain there is an expectancy from the supporters of those clubs for each of them to compete at a certain level. Thirdly, his aforementioned record in League One. He’s got teams out of this league before, and in his last job at Bolton he got them promoted on a shoestring and then somehow managed to keep them in the Championship.

He’s definitely not my first choice, but there are certainly worse options and I cannot quite understand the negativity being shown towards the potential of Parkinson as our manager. I think if people actually looked at the jobs he’s done at other clubs they’d at least learn a little about him and why, with promotion our sole aim, he might be capable of doing a job.

Photo by Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

The amount I don’t know about what makes a good leader in football, set aside, I’m fairly sure leaving a couple of clubs because one is too combative and severe with the board of directors is not exactly a virtue.

Perhaps, I am missing something, but I do not really understand the attention Nigel Pearson is getting for the job; and I really do not get the negativity being directed at managers who have recently won the division we are in (with much less money), when we have struggled severely in said division.

Colter Lasley

Ed’s Note [Damian]: To be honest Colter, I think a lot of the negativity that surrounds managers that are journeymen at this level is one part ignorance and two parts desperation to be back in a more, shall we say, reputable division. Household names are the order of the day whenever Sunderland bids farewell to another manager, mostly because our brains are still playing catch-up with our reality as a football club. Despite being out of the Premier League for three seasons (ugh), the bright lights of that division haven’t left our eyes, indeed, half of the reason fan attendance stays strong is because as a group, with the club, our entire existence is geared towards getting back there.

When you spend your days of the mind that we’re a Premier League club that’s been hard done by, anything less than Premier League management experience is underwhelming. Truthfully, I think 99% of our supporter base has yet to mentally deal with the fallout of our fall from grace, and until we do this malaise will hang over us with anything less than complete and total dominance of this league. Whether that will happen or not, who can say? If I were you I’d settle in for another year or so of hearing your disappointed comrades complain about the things that are alien to them.