Source: Daily_Mail
HATCHET MAN: Strachan the new Sunderland boss? Anything's better than slow-drying paint Sbragia
It seems Sunderland have not had enough of spiky, idiosyncratic managers after all.
The 'smiles on their faces' regime of Ricky Sbragia has failed so spectacularly that Gordon Strachan has emerged as the favourite to replace him next season, providing they stay up, to reinstate the grimace.
Survival will be by default of course - as the other relegation candidates are too bad to drop them in it - but whatever happens on Sunday, Sbragia must go.
Strachan is not exactly a populist manager and he doesn't go out to make friends with his public persona but after Mr Magnolia, anyone would be better.
Sbragia hinted not too long ago that he would be ready to return to coaching at the end of the season and that seemed like a thoroughly sensible idea.
However, just as he is about to be confirmed as a failure in management on Sunday in the final match of the campaign, he says he wants to stay in charge.
Unless he is preparing for a legal fight to be paid in full for the remaining year of his contract when he is ousted in the summer, the claim is astounding.
Apart from the new manager bounce he got at the start of his rein he has not so much led Sunderland as gone along for the slide.
