Chris Coleman is relishing the challenge of transforming Sunderland's negative mindset

Chris Coleman was fairly wide eyed. Sunderland’s football team were at the bottom of the table, but the facilities before him at the Academy of Light spoke of potential for much better.

The Welshman was being shown around the club’s impressive training headquarters, tucked away in leafy Cleadon and set amongst 220 acres of land, by Kevin Ball, his old Fulham team-mate.

It was state of the art stuff. It was also 2006. Sunderland’s game with Fulham had been abandoned because of a snow storm in the first half. Coleman was Fulham manager then and Ball was in temporary charge of Sunderland, so he was taken on a tour of the training facilities that had been built three years earlier.

That memory was tucked away until a phone call last month, more than eleven years later. He immediately got in touch with Kit Symonds, his former number two from Wales and his defensive partner from Fulham. “We’ve had a nibble,” he told Symonds. “And it’s a big one.”

From the highs of taking his nation to the semi-final of a major competition for the first time in Wales’ history, Coleman stepped into a football club that had forgotten how to win a game on home soil. In 20 attempts, Sunderland had not won at the Stadium of Light. The owner, Ellis Short, wanted out. Simon Grayson, his immediate predecessor, had lasted four months. David Moyes, the man before him, bemoaned ever taking over. There had been 11 managers since he had first walked around the Academy of Light.

It looked, from the outside at least, like his pride had come before a fall.

But then Coleman spoke on his first day in office. It felt revelatory in his energy, something the club had been crying out for. In the five games since his appointment six weeks ago, he has won two (including ending a 364-day winless run on Wearside) and drawn one (at league leaders Wolves with 10 men).

That really was better than anyone could have expected. Short remains a peripheral figure in the club’s running, something now taken care of by chief executive Martin Bain.

There is a desire to further clear out a dressing room that brought with it huge salaries. Jack Rodwell has started just one league game this season, on a salary believed to be in excess of £60,000-a-week. There is a need to change the culture of a club at times, and the fallout from relegation, which had felt like it was knocking at the door the preceding four seasons, has opened up that possibility.

There may yet be an attempt to buy out the contracts of certain players, not only to ease the club’s wage bill, but also to suggest something new is beginning.

open image in gallery

Coleman did that when he celebrated with the visiting supporters at Burton. It was there after last week’s victory against Fulham as well. He is attempting to change a mindset.

“There was a good buzz off everyone and we mustn’t shy away from it or play it down,” he said. “People keep saying, ‘You know what it’s like here? We win one and then we lose one,’ and I’m like, ‘Nah, nah, nah! Come on let’s take it to the next step now. We’re in a good frame of mind, let’s make it happen and build on what we’ve done.’ We have to be positive.

“If we’re going to do anything we need consistency. It’s not accepting that this is what it’s always been like. It’s not giving in to that. It’s for us, the players, the staff, to demand from each other more and more, never feeling happy or comfortable with what we’ve done. If we’ve done something good, how do we go and do it again?

“We have to make it happen for us. That is the only way we’re going to get teams to fear coming to the Stadium of Light.”

Coleman has admitted he has pushed his players hard physically. There has been extra work defensively, on being overloaded, which in fairness has been a frequent occurrence.

There was a clean sheet against Fulham, as there was at Wolves and Burton. That has been the big change. It is bringing back a piece of pride in the team, which was a big early aim.

There is a genuine delight from Coleman and Symonds that they are back in the day to day of a football club. With Wales, in a non-tournament year, there were a dozen games to focus on. It wasn’t enough.

“I love it. I love it. I absolutely love it,” said Coleman, when asked how much he was enjoying being in charge of Sunderland. “It was even better today because the sun was out. I forgot all about what the big yellow thing is. You don’t see that too often. Take the weather away, I’ve absolutely loved it.

“I know what’s in front. I know it’s a real big challenge. I’m at a real big club. I always wanted that experience. I’m enjoying it. I’m looking forward to what is in front of me. Nothing has changed my mind since I first came.”

Six weeks down the line, to retain that energy, is as good as he could have wished for.