Gus Poyet left his former managerial role at Brighton in controversial circumstance, having apparantly told the board he wanted to leave in March before, allegedly being told while live on BBC's Match Of The Day that he had been fired. After this he has had an ongoing court case against the Seagulls claiming a unfair dismissal.
Poyet has now been appointed as manager of bottom Premier league side Sunderland, who only have one point after their first seven games; Poyet will proceed sacked manager Paulo Di Canio. Both Paulo and Gus Poyet were appointed from a team below the Premier league, both made it clear that ultimately they wanted to be managing in the Premier league and both have a tendency to sign foreign players and finally both are clouded by controversial moments and circumstances.
So why have Sunderland taken another risk with Gus Poyet when clearly Di Canio did not work out, despite spending a large sum of money during the transfer window? Gus Poyet had a brilliant time at Brighton, when he joined they were languishing near the bottom of league one, and nearly suffered relegation before he took control and lead them to a mid table finish that season. The year after he managed to get Brighton promoted to the Championship, a great achievement as that year Brighton were to move in to their £90million AMEX stadium. Last season Brighton were lead by Poyet in to the play off's being defeated only by eventual play off winners, Crystal Palace.
However, a great record does not mean that he will be a sure success in the Premier league, Di Canio had also lead Swindon Town to league success in league 2 and was consistently around the promotion bid in league one and yet he failed at Sunderland, all be it in a short period of time.
One reason for the choice of Poyet is that he has experience with Brighton of turning them from a side looking likely to be relegated in to a side that is pushing for promotion. Sunderland need that ability at the moment, as, while it is early in the season, they are already six points away from safety, a position they cannot let escape them or they will be there all season. As we saw with QPR last season, if you take too long to get your first win then it can be incredibly difficult to get out of that position and form.
In my opinion however, the key difference between Di Canio and Gus Poyet is man management. Di Canio was well known for his battering of players publicly for poor performances, and it is reported that a complete anarchy in the dressing room was the reason for his sacking and the reason for such poor results, although Di Canio denies that this is true. On the other hand, one thing Poyet always does is stick up for his players and get them together as a unit. Clearly if the stories are true then this style of man management is much needed at Sunderland at the moment.
The owners at Sunderland want to see attacking football played that the fans can enjoy. During his time at Brighton, Poyet had a heavy influence on them trying, and succeeding, to play the 'Swansea way'. Brighton were proud of their passing play under Poyet which is something that he will be looking to introduce to Sunderland's style of play.
Gus Poyet now has the international break to get to know his side and get them ready for the game against Swansea in a fortnights time. Poyet has proven himself to be very dedicated to football, during his time out he has regularly been doing punditry for the BBC and ITV as well as continually attending games of teams who may be looking to approach him in the future, including Sunderland so he should have a decent idea of what he needs to do, and there will be a lot.
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