Tony Mowbray departs

Echo

What Tony Mowbray said in his fascinating and revealing final press conference as Sunderland boss
Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray left the club late on Monday night

Phil Smith

Sunderland confirmed their decision to part company with Tony Mowbray on Monday night. You can read reaction from Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus here - as well as analysis from our Sunderland AFC reporter Phil Smith here.

Though the decision is something of a surprise with the club just three points off the play-off places, Mowbray's final press conference after the 1-1 draw with Millwall clearly hinted that such a move might be in the works. You can read what he said in his revealing reflections on the game below...

What did you make of the performance?


"I thought we pretty much dominated the game apart from the last ten minutes when we'd scored. You expect us to be putting much their goal under siege at that point but it was the other way around, if anything.

"But, and you've been watching us, we can control a game but we don't look like scoring a goal. They had isolated breakaways, I thought we dominated long spells without looking like we'd score. We had about 74% possession and and 27 shots on Wednesday, one goal from a set play. It was similar at Plymouth.

"We don't look like scoring - I think it's because we have inexperienced strikers who aren't really ready at this moment to play for our team, but they have to play and we are playing them. We are trying to develop them and get them up to speed to be able to be a striker in the Championship."

You probably looked more dangerous without a striker - with those experienced players?


"Alex, Bradley... they're good footballers. I'm pleased with the team and proud of them, if you come to Millwall and let have them have any level of possession then they're going to put the ball in your box. They're going to have lots of opportunities if you let them, first ten seconds they're putting a long throw in your box. You have to stand up and deal with it, and Ballard dealt with Cooper amazingly well I thought.

"We controlled it without a cutting edge. Ballard maybe should have scored in the second half, Clarke obviously wins us a penalty. But there was not enough shots, not enough end product."

Do you have a decision to make as to whether you go without a striker - and go with those more established options?


"It's not really my decision, the club wants to develop young players and for them to be given an opportunity," Mowbray said. "That's what I do, I give them a chance.

"My gut inside me [in the game] tells me that we need to change, because I want to win. That's the truth, I'm trying to develop young players to create value in them, give them good careers. Sometimes they're not quite ready but that's OK, they'll get game time, they'll get on the pitch to experience the Championship. I signed up for that, I bought into it.

"Here I am doing it, picking them, playing them. I'm comfortable with it but there you are at 55 minutes... and I want to win. We still aren't having shots, so I go with players I think I can turn it around. As a club we want to be bold and the young players have to be on the pitch to show they can do it, that's what we're doing."

How pleased are you with Jack Clarke?


"It's what we see every game," Mowbray said.

"He's got ten goals this season now - he has grown so much. He was obviously a £10 million once upon a time when he went from Leeds to Spurs but I think he lost a bit of confidence, had a few loans that didn't go particularly well.

"I'd never take any credit for what Jack is doing, other than to love him, tell him how great he is and to make sure the ball gets to him. I want to let our flair players damage the opposition and I think he enjoys that. He can go inside, outside... he's full of confidence and belief. To have a wide player scoring that many goals is massive for us, I know a handful of them are penalties but to be fair, he's winning most of those himself.

"He's amazing and I do think the club need to be ready, people will be looking at Jack Clarke whether it be in this window coming up or the summer, because now that he's confident and bright you can see what a phenomenal talent he is. You see now why he got that move because of his attributes, how close he can keep the ball to that right foot and then go either way, feint to shoot and then play that little pass. He's an amazing footballer."

Is he worth more now than when he left Leeds for Spurs?


"I'll let you decide that, but I think so," he said.

"I know for a fact that the club wouldn't even consider... probably double that in the modern market. His first thought is to attack, he goes right at you and forces you to put a foot in, he either skips right past you or you try and jockey him, but then you're pushed back in your own box. He's very talented and I'm very glad he's our player.

"I think he knows he has to be playing, and I think he likes it here. it's a huge jump to the Premier League, though of course you've seen players like Bowen and Benrahma do it. I can't tell you what Jack is thinking, other than that he enjoys playing in this team and playing with his mates - he's amazing mates with Roberts, Pritchard, Dack... and they're a great, fun bunch of footballers to have on the training pitch.

"I don't know what the future holds other than that he enjoys playing his football here, loves coming into work every day, and he's adored by 45,000 fans every week."

You mentioned about the strikers - do you think there'll be funds in January to add one?


“I don’t know if we will be signing a striker,” he said. "I just coach the team.

"I do get asked of course, and sit in recruitment meetings but we haven’t had one yet about January. But I think the club will say to me ‘we have Mayenda, Rusyn, Hemir and Burstow on loan from Chelsea, so you have four strikers, what do you want another striker for’?

“That’s probably how I think it will go. But that is OK, that is fine, we will just have to keep working with them. We show them their clips after every game to see what they could have done better. They are here to learn and grow and hopefully they will become major players.

“I am not sure they are ready to quite help us win games like at Millwall with all the possession we have to win 3-0. We haven’t got that striker at this moment

Actually sooner than I expected.

Hey ho life goes on.

I would be happier if Speakman had been sacked and Mowbray stayed.

Who or what is the Ronnie Gill?

I would have been happier if the club let Mowbray sign the players he wanted or had a say in it.

But as he said, he signed up to it as did Neil, as will the next guy.

Can't see anything improving until we get a 'manager' not a 'coach'

I didnt want Mowbray to be sacked, he was working with what came in, quite clearly our strikers are out of there depth at Championship level, maybe not Ruzyn, need to see more of him, so it makes no sense to me from a footballing poing of view, however I think he fell out with the owner over comments regarding the strikers.

Lets see what happens next.