I’m certain Paolo Di Canio wasn’t appointed by the Sunderland board because he believes Benito Mussolini to have been a 'principled individual', despite the fact he wiped out an estimated 300,000 people and was one of Hitler’s closest allies.
Nor did he get the job because he had admitted in the past he is a fascist, but denied being a racist. His admiration for Mussolini is stated clearly in his autobiography, a few paragraphs away from his recipe for tiramisu.
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In between the Mussolini love-in and the secrets of a special Italian dessert you’ll find this quote: 'If we’re not careful, in 10 years’ time Italy could be a Muslim country.' It was written in 2000 so Paolo must think Italy has been 'careful'.
He may not think it is a big deal but it is. And it was when he was at Swindon Town. That’s why one of the club sponsors – the GMB union – pulled out when he was appointed.
Sunderland will claim they gave Di Canio the job for football reasons. I find that hard to swallow.
If you only consider what he’s done on the field as a manager Di Canio has been a success. Swindon were expected to get promoted from League Two but he achieved that in style by winning the title. He also took them to Wembley in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final where, despite being favourites, they lost to Chesterfield. And this season in League One he left them riding high in the table. Swindon had a massive budget compared with other clubs in the bottom division but he still got the job done.
Other managers who achieved promotion from League Two in recent seasons include Steve Evans at Crawley, Graham Westley at Stevenage, John Sheridan at Chesterfield (who then took charge of that Wembley win over Swindon), and Gary Waddock.
Darren Ferguson has three promotions in four seasons and kept Peterborough in the Championship on a tiny budget a quarter of the size of most of the others in the division.
Chris Powell changed most of his squad and won the League One title with Charlton and has now kept them in the Championship.
In a million years Sunderland would never have considered the likes of Sheridan, Powell or any of the others for the job at the Stadium of Light.
One lower league manager told me it was 'sickening' that Di Canio got the job just because he is a 'name'.
Di Canio may be brilliant, and may become the best manager Sunderland ever appointed. But how he gets the job ahead of all the others is beyond me. Is it because he is foreign? Is it because he makes headlines?
He’s had a controversial start at Sunderland, and that’s before his team has even kicked a ball.
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I see Rio Ferdinand was at fault for Demba Ba’s goal but I wonder if it’s wise to criticise him.It seems if anyone expresses any negativity towards Rio then they run the risk of being accused of racism. Let’s be clear here – if anyone is racist towards Rio Ferdinand then that should be punished.But if fans sing songs about Ferdinand that are not racist – what’s the problem?I can never fully understand the pain of being a black man racially abused by a white man. I’m aware of that.But that doesn’t stop me understanding what constitutes racism.If I say Rio Ferdinand was at fault for the Ba goal it does not make me a racist. At fault: Ferdinand watches on as Chelsea celebrate Ba's strike If opposition fans boo Rio Ferdinand because he pulled out of the England squad and flew to Doha to be a TV pundit that’s not racism.If anyone is racist towards Rio Ferdinand, then they should be punished.If fans are accused of racism when actually they’re expressing negativity towards Rio Ferdinand in a non-racist way, then that undermines the anti-racism message and confuses those who need educating about what is and what isn’t racism.
Managers don’t help referees at all. At the weekend, Nottingham Forest boss Billy Davies complained about a free-kick being given before a corner that led to a goal for Brighton. Very tenuous. He also said a Brighton player should have been sent off, but failed to mention that the same player was kicked by a Forest opponent while he was on the ground. Tenuous link: Leo Ulloa gives Brighton the lead at Nottingham Forest on Saturday but home manager Billy Davies thinks his side should have had a free-kick in the build-up to the corner which led to the goal Mark Robins complained about a push not being spotted by a referee in the build-up to the Hull goal that beat his Huddersfield side. It wasn’t a push. The contact wouldn’t have been penalised in netball. Later in the game the referee made an honest mistake when he booked Huddersfield striker James Vaughan, even though it was his team-mate Oscar Gobern who had been involved in the incident. It would have been Gobern’s second yellow card so when Vaughan protested, Huddersfield trio Neil Danns, Peter Clarke and Jermaine Beckford physically dragged him away from the referee knowing if Vaughan took the booking, Huddersfield would keep 11 men on the pitch. Robins failed to highlight that afterwards. Blatant hypocrisy from him, and appalling dishonesty from his players. Lucky escape: Oscar Gobern (left) should have seen red for Huddersfield on Saturday for a second yellow card but the referee cautioned James Vaughan instead And Malky Mackay, notorious for blaming refs when anything goes wrong, not only criticised the ref, he also accused two Peterborough United players of diving. They didn’t. Mackay’s players failed to tackle properly in the box. Fans and pundits explain it by saying these managers are trying to defend their players. But the net result is that referees get the blame.It’s about time managers took on their responsibilities and stopped lazily blaming referees. It’s a sign of weakness.
Tactically Harry Redknapp completely outcoached Martin Jol in the west London derby on Monday night, but in the end QPR were undone by individual errors.
There is literally nothing a manager can do to legislate for the kind of errors Christopher Samba and Clint Hill made to put Fulham 3-0 up. None of those errors were forced, Fulham weren’t even pressing with any great urgency.
All players make mistakes, rarely do they make those kind of errors in the same half in the same game.
Spot on: But Redknapp's tactics could not legislate for QPR's woeful first-half defendingHarry switched Adel Taarabt and Loic Remy, got more from Andros Townsend and Rangers then dominated. The players were clearly told to run at Fulham’s ageing midfield and defence, and they did. After a wasted penalty and a world-class save from Mark Schwarzer, QPR can feel unlucky they didn’t get something from the game. Jol had no answer to Harry’s plans second half.
No doubt the Harry-sceptics will blame him when they go down. But they hadn’t won a game when he arrived and had their rate of collapse continued QPR would be down by now.
Harry Redknapp is way too good for the Championship, but I hope he stays at QPR, brings them back and proves the critics wrong.
Andy Carroll and Demba Ba scored virtually identical goals over the Easter period. Guess which one was highlighted more? Of course Ba’s goal was lauded as a world class finish and rightly so. Maybe it was because it was in a more high-profile game, or he plays for a bigger club, I don’t know.Ba is in better form and a better player. But if we’re talking about the goals in isolation I don’t see much difference. Both brilliant. Fine finish: Carroll's strike against West Brom was brilliant It’s easy to criticise Carroll because of the fee Liverpool paid.As an Englishman I’m proud we have a striker with the kind of technical ability needed to score a goal like that. It was on his weaker right foot as well.If he adds consistency to his game, then there is no stopping Andy Carroll.
VIDEO: Watch Carroll's strike against West Brom on Saturday .epl_container,.epl_top_container, .spon_left, .spon_right, .epl_clear{display:block;margin:0px;padding:0px;min-height:0px;font-size:0px;border:0px;white-space:nowrap;} .epl_container{background-color:#000000;} .epl_top_container{background:#F9F9F9 url(http://l.yimg.com/i/i/uk/any/e/bkg.jpg) repeat-x scroll top;} .spon_left{width:140px;float:left;height:60px;overflow:hidden;background:#000000 url(http://l.yimg.com/i/i/uk/any/e/ylogo.jpg) no-repeat;} .spon_right{width:160px;float:right;height:60px;overflow:hidden;background:#000000 url(http://l.yimg.com/i/i/uk/any/e/right.jpg) no-repeat;} .epl_clear{clear:both;} I saw Gareth Bale at Swansea on Saturday and he showed flashes of pure brilliance. He even had time to make a goal-saving body-on-the-line block.Luis Suarez played extremely well to give Liverpool a win at Villa, fresh from a long trip for international duty. Case for the defence: Bale gets back to thwart Nathan Dyer These two seem to be leading the way in the challenge to become player of the season, and if either of them get it there won’t be many arguments.I thought Michu deserved a shout, but for me there is only one player who has provided entertainment, quality, consistency, and made a massive difference to his side. On top of this, he’s been brilliant during a season of utter turmoil at his football club. Step forward my player of the season – Juan Mata. Mata of fact: Chelsea's Spain midfielder (right) is the player of the seasonMore... Proud Sunderland fans never dreamt they'd see a 'fascist' on Keir Hardie Way ADRIAN DURHAM COLUMN: Brazil used to be brilliant, but this side is far from special... Cleverley is not quite Scholes and not quite Carrick... selling Suarez will send Liverpool on the road to mediocrity An expert on Samurai warfare, he makes a mean tiramisu and one ex-boss calls him The Volcano... is pagan Paolo the pottiest man in football? Revelling in the club's fascist past, Lazio 'Ultras' are among the most feared in Italy GEORGE BOATENG: England fans may not agree but Steve McClaren is the best boss I have played for... and when I hang up my boots my dream is to manage Aston Villa
