I didn’t go to this one, so I’ll keep it short. Sunderland had lost four on the spin ahead of this match, while QPR had lost its previous two. But after Nicolas Madsen scored in the fifth minute the Black Cats didn’t look particularly dangerous, only really testing Joe Walsh, our reserve keeper, twice, once in the first half and once in the second. On both occasions, he was alive to the danger and made good saves. Indeed, he was probably our best player on the day, as I thought he was in the final match of last season against Coventry, which we also won. It’s reassuring to know that if another club comes for Paul Nardi we have a good alternative on the bench.
After Martí Cifuentes was put on gardening leave at the beginning of the week (more on that below), assistant coaches Kevin Betsy and Xavi Calm were in charge for this one – and they made what turned out to be one astute change, playing Jack Colback at left back and Harrison Ashby in midfield in front of Jimmy Dunne. I say “astute” because it was Ashby’s cross that Madsen brought down in the box, before smashing the ball into the top right hand corner. They made a few other changes to the team Martí put out against Burnley, starting Ilias Chair in the No 10 role, with Madsen out to his right and Karamoke Dembélé to his left, and instead of Rayan Kolli up front, they played Michy Frey. That meant we lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Nardi in goal; Dunne, Liam Morrison, Ronnie Edwards and Colback in the back line; Ashby and Jonathan Varane in front of them; Dembélé, Chair and Madsen as the attacking trio; and Frey leading the line.
I was only half watching it, to be honest, because my mother-in-law dropped by to do some gardening and I ended up having to go to Sainsbury’s to get her a sandwich. But from what I did see, Madsen looked like he had a decent game, not only scoring our goal, but at one point tracking back and making an important tackle. Watching him improve in the last few games has been an unexpected pleasure and I’ve revised my initial view of him as one of CEO Christian Nourry’s poorer ‘computer says yes’ signings. Ashby has also improved in the last dozen games or so, clearly a lot happier playing on the right than the left, with the freedom to run into the final third. I never thought I’d say this, but I will regret his departure. Although not as much as I will Ronnie Edwards’. If there’s any way we can get him on a permanent, we should.
Chair went down clutching his ankle in the 36th minute and because the injury happened off the ball it looked serious. But miraculously he was soon back up and played for the remainder of the first half, to be replaced by Rayan Kolli in the second. Even with Kolli and Frey playing together, we never looked like getting another goal and much of the second half was spent defending our box, with Colback putting in a good shift at left back until he was replaced by Morgan Fox in the 62nd minute, and Dunne doing a great job on the right.
It was good to end the season on a high, particularly after the Burnley drubbing last Saturday, and it means we finish with 56 points, exactly the same as 23-24, although we’re in 15th place, three higher than last time, so that’s an improvement. It’s just not as much progress as I and everybody else expected from Martí’s first full season in charge. And it looks like his lap of the stadium after the Burnley game, during which he genuflected repeatedly to the fans, was his farewell. The reason he’s been put on gardening leave is that he was in talks at West Brom to succeed Tony Mowbray, although the club has now said he’s not on their shortlist. It seems pretty clear that relations between Cifuentes and Nourry – and probably with Chairman Lee Hoos as well – have broken down. The only reason Martí hasn’t been sacked is because Nourry and Hoos want another club to stump up if it poaches him, given that he signed a new contract in September. I assume that when he does go he’ll take Xavi Calm with him.
The best analysis I’ve heard of why Cifuentes is off was provided by former QPR striker Kevin Gallen on the West London Sport podcast.
It’s worth listening to the whole thing, but the gist is that this is just another instance of the same old story: a Championship club that wants to make slow but steady progress, buying promising young players, developing them, then selling them for a profit, and a head coach who wants to make a name for himself by moving much more quickly, ideally by getting in to the play-offs and winning promotion. To do that, the manager doesn’t want to take too many chances on bringing members of the development squad into the first team and would prefer to buy proven assets, or, if that’s not possible, get some premier league players in on loan. But no Championship club cannot afford to do too much of that and, in any event, this one has had its fingers’ burnt when it’s splurged on players before. So, the relationship between the manager and the club is always going to be quite tense and usually breaks down after a season or two, particularly when the squad is performing poorly, which for large parts of this season ours was.
In spite of the losing streaks, I think Martí has been a decent manager, keeping us up for two seasons in difficult circumstances, having inherited a mess in 23-24 and being afflicted with an above-average number of injuries in 24-25. He is probably a better defensive coach than an attacking one, as Gallen says in the podcast, and seems to oscillate between playing technical, European-style football, with an emphasis on playing it out from the back and passing it up the field, and more pragmatic, Brexit-y football, relying on a mid-block to protect the box and long balls to set attacks in motion. As a general rule, trying to play in the former style, given the limited players we’ve got, has coincided with our losing streaks, and playing in the latter style with our winning streaks. But there are exceptions and when the team is at its best, such as the first 30 minutes against Bristol City a few weeks ago, it has combined stubborn, old-fashioned defending with real flair in the final third. You can see why another Championship club with more money to spend than us – and a better squad – would be interested.
How regrettable his departure turns out to be will depend on his successor and how well they do. Kevin Betsy will have improved his chances after yesterday’s win and has a good reputation, having managed the England U15s, U17s and U18s, as well as Arsenal’s U23s, so I wouldn’t rule him out. According to EFL Analysis, five other possibilities are: Richie Wellens, currently the manager of Leyton Orient; Uri Fischer, previously of Union Berlin; Miron Muslic, who steadied the ship at Plymouth, although couldn’t keep them up; Oscar Garcia, formerly head coach at Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford; and Leighton Baynes, currently an assistant manager at Everton. I’ll write another post when the appointment is made.
You can watch the highlights of yesterday’s game on Sky Sports here.
