On This Day (22nd March 2009): Sbragia confident of keeping his job despite relegation threat

03/22/2025 03:02 AM

"If we stay up, I think I am here for the long haul" — Ricky Sbragia was planning ahead and planning for life as the next permanent boss of Sunderland, despite the looming threat of relegation!

Another weekend brought another defeat for Ricky Sbragia as the concern of Sunderland being relegated and falling into the Championship was becoming a bigger and bigger concern as the weeks went by.

Despite a positive start to life as Sunderland manager, Sbragia's stewardship had brought more hardship than success as time went on with his team losing to Manchester City on this day in 2009.

Things were testy around Wearside as Sunderland lost to Wigan Athletic at the Stadium of Light the week previous where Sunderland captain Dean Whitehead questioned the behaviour of some supporters in a radio interview immediately after the game.

This didn't help the mood going into the game in Manchester and things only got worse for Sbragia when his team were down to ten men after George McCartney was sent off after only fifteen minutes for pulling back Shaun Wright-Phillips on the edge of the box..

Sunderland were resolute throughout and were set up in 4-5-1 and then a 4-4-1 formation, and the nine remaining outfield players defended admirably for the rest of the game - limiting City to playing hopeful balls into the box without any calling Marton Fulop into action.

The biggest moment of the half came when Robinho missed a Manchester City penalty with Fulop saving. In truth, Robinho made a pig's ear of his run-stutter-kick technique which resulted in a flat penalty saved by Fulop low to his right.

In the second half, City finally got their goal to win the game through a Micah Richards header. The defender connected with Elano's delivery from six yards out to take the heat off their Brazilian winger.

In truth, we created nothing and a 1-0 defeat wasn't the worst given the team was down to ten men for most of the game. The closest we went was when Andy Reid's shot was blocked by Irish counterpart Richard Dunne.

After the game, Sbragia spoke about the future and was keen to stress that he was in it for the long term despite the threat of relegation that was lingering over his head consistently and refused to consider relegation.

"If we stay up, I think I am here for the long haul,"

"I'm planning ahead for that. I'm looking to stay in the Premier League, and I'm looking to do things better in the future.

"I have a plan for the future. We've talked about what players we might want to bring in, but that will all rely on how we do this season.

"We have to move up that table, then we can talk about building for the future and what we want to do and bring in."

Sbragia's declaration was at odds with the reality at the end of the season when the Scot tendered his resignation live on television after defeat to Chelsea in the last game of the season.

Despite Niall Quinn's insistance that Sbragia had 'job for lif

e', the stresses of the job appeared to take it's toll on Sbragia.