Sunderland’s Michael Beale: ‘I want to be the coach, not the manager of the whole club’

By Philip Buckingham

When Sunderlandfinally sacked Tony Mowbray after spending six months wondering if life might look better without him, the inevitability of it all encouraged a broad acceptance of the separation.

Not every supporter was on board with the dismissal of a head coach who had taken a newly-promoted youthful side to the Championship play-offs last season but the bubbling tension between Mowbray and the Sunderland hierarchy had signposted the direction of travel well enough. Someone had to give ground and it was not those wedded to a model that Mowbray had begun to doubt.

A fresh start would be tolerated if it illustrated Sunderland’s ambition but after talks were held with Will Still, the 31-year-old impressing with Ligue 1 club Reims, a two-week search for Mowbray’s replacement ended with a curious, less stimulating appointment.

Michael Beale, out of work since the beginning of October after a bruising 10-month reign as Rangersboss, signed his two-and-a-half-year deal on Mondayand will now take charge of his first game when Sunderland welcome CoventryCity to the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

A victory might see Sunderland celebrate Christmas in the Championship’s top six but Beale arrives first needing to convince some supporters he is an upgrade on Mowbray. The jury, it would be polite to conclude, is currently out.

Owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman were ultimately sold on Beale during lengthy meetings last week. Other contenders had been considered, such as Still and Swedish coach Kim Hellberg, yet Beale would eventually emerge as the leading candidate.

“It was clear that he shares our ideals on implementing a high-performance culture and he is committed to a playing style that we feel is central to our progress,” said Louis-Dreyfus, the 26-year-old who has a five-year plan to make Sunderland a Premier Leagueclub.

Beale has been entrusted to continue the progress of the past two years and following on from Lee Johnson, Alex Neil and Mowbray — more conventional EFLappointments — Speakman believes Sunderland are now in a stronger position to challenge for promotion.

Speakman and Beale are known to have had a good relationship since their days in academy football, where their paths would regularly cross. While Speakman spent 14 years working in Birmingham City’s youth set-up, Beale was earning a reputation for his developmental work at Chelseaand Liverpool. There is a year between the pair and, as Beale, the younger at 43, was at pains to point out, there is an “alignment” in their philosophies.

Sunderland believe they will get a different version of Beale from the one who eventually floundered in Glasgow. Recruitment will continue to be driven by Speakman and Stuart Harvey, the club’s head of scouting, and Beale will be asked to play to his strengths on the training pitch. Sunderland have primarily sought a sharp tactical mind and a coach capable of developing their cluster of promising youngsters alongside Mike Dodds, the interim boss who has been promoted to assistant head coach.

Beale will not need to sweat the bigger stuff, as he did to his detriment at Rangers. The summer saw him take on powers that consumed him in the wake of Ross Wilson leaving his post as sporting director at Ibrox to join Nottingham Forest. A rebuild, led by Beale, was followed by a rocky start to this season that ultimately cost him his job.

“There were a lot of changes with people leaving (Rangers) and I got pulled in different places,” Beale told Sunderland’s media channels this week. “The thing I feel really comfortable with here is the alignment through the club.

“My role being in line with that of a head coach. I have an opinion and an idea on other aspects of the club, but I want to be the coach of the team, not the manager of the whole football club. This was a good fit in terms of alignment; there was a lot of common ground. I feel as though this is a fantastic moment to be joining the club.”

Sunderland chose to highlight Beale’s win ratio as Rangers boss in the statement that confirmed his appointment. That figure of 77.4 per cent eclipses any predecessor at Ibrox but fails to account for his greatest stumbles. Beale’s team lost four of six Old Firm games, including the Scottish League Cup final in February and the Scottish Cup semi-final in April. Defeat in the Champions Leaguequalifier against PSV Eindhoven, condemning Rangers to the Europa Leaguethis season, was another costly setback.

Beale spent his days of unemployment watching football in Portugal, France and Belgium, while also visiting Brazil, where he once served as an assistant manager with Sao Paulo. There was also a family trip to Lapland. Those close to Beale did not expect a return to frontline management to come so quickly.

Sunderland have chosen to look beyond Beale’s failings at Rangers and focus upon the body of work that got him there. The years spent working with Chelsea and Liverpool, the spells as Steven Gerrard’s assistant, first at Rangers and then with Aston Villa.

“It would take me 15 to 20 years to become as good as Michael Beale as an on-pitch coach, delivering sessions on a daily basis, so I let Mick be Mick Beale because he’s the expert,” said Gerrard in 2021.

Beale did enough in a few short months as Queens Park Rangershead coach to convince Wolverhampton Wanderershe could be Bruno Lage’s successor last October but a rejection of that opportunity represented the first damage to his reputation. A month after saying he was “all-in” at Loftus Road, he was leaving to join Rangers in a move he claimed could not be turned down. Beale arrives on Wearside with two tainted exits in a row and back on the hunt for appreciation.

Sunderland ought to at least offer him opportunities for that. Others in the Championship are stronger but a young squad includes talented mainstays, such as Jack Clarke, Dan Neil, Dan Ballardand Anthony Patterson. There is room for them all to grow together but, as Mowbray discovered, the model has its imperfections. Sunderland do not have a centre-forward who has scored all season.

“I’d like to help this group of players fulfil their potential,” said Beale yesterday. “The utopia would be to do that together and go to the Premier League, that’s what we’re all aiming for. As a football club, we’ve got an idea of where we want to go and it’s important that every day we step towards that.”

Games away to Hull Cityand Rotherham Unitedfollow Beale’s first at the Stadium of Light this weekend before 2024 begins with the visit of Preston North End. And after that? Newcastle Unitedat home in the FA Cupthird round. Beale knows all too well how fortunes against your fiercest rivals can irrevocably shape perceptions.

https://theathletic.com/5152201/2023/12/21/michael-beale-sunderland-coach/