Unlike O’Neill, Di Canio has nothing to lose

Paolo Di Canio has been given the task of saving Sunderland from the threat of relegation after agreeing a two-and-a-half-year contract at the Stadium of Light.

Out goes the storied martinet, in comes the fascinating fascist. If ever there was a reason why Paolo Di Canio, proud football explorer and even prouder admirer of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, has been installed as Sunderland manager to succeed the sacked Martin O’Neill, it can be discovered in the dispiriting performances of men like the ghostly Adam Johnson. Di Canio's anointing suggests one right winger has benefited from another's failure.

Johnson is an example of why players get managers sacked, a microcosm of a wider apathy at the Stadium of dimming Light. His was a listless, limp and gutless performance in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday that sounded the death knell on O’Neill’s fairly miserable 16-month period as a black sheep manager of the Black Cats.

Johnson was replaced by Connor Wickham on 76 minutes against United amid a team performance of widespread poverty. Johnson was a figure who you would not have swapped an old Jimmy Nail album for, far less the £10 million O’Neill paid to purchase the player from Manchester City last summer.

O’Neill’s bigger problem was explained by a number 21 shirt that was as empty as the conversation his manager apparently had with the north-east club’s American owner later on Saturday night.

When O’Neill spoke to Ellis Short by phone, one guesses it would have been pointed out to the Northern Irishman that he had been given £30m to furnish a squad that one could easily argue are destined for relegation. Men like Johnson would have been held up as the stick to beat O’Neill over the head with.

Matches against Manchester United were supposed to be made for figures such as Johnson, a player with 12 England caps who can operate wide left or right, but too many of them have slipped by him and his sorry cohorts.

Sunderland are only one point above the bottom three despite O'Neill investing faith and large sums of money in recruiting Johnson, Steven Fletcher, Danny Graham and Alfred N'Diaye. Short's disillusionment is said to have taken hold during a 3-1 defeat at the Premier League's bottom club Queens Park Rangers last month.

Patience is fine, but Short had every right to ask O'Neill: What is in this for me?

Compared to O’Neill, Di Canio, 44, is a maverick. He was an attacking player of some renown with clubs such as Lazio, AC Milan, Celtic and West Ham United. His career was defined by incident, but he has done next to nothing in the coaching game to suggest he can be Sunderland's saviour.

He won League Two in his first assignment at Swindon Town last season. Sunderland are hoping his passionate and slightly chaotic approach to life can have some sort of cocaine-induced effect on a squad that is sleepwalking its way to the Championship.

There was more spirit during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow than there is among this current lot. They certainly need a buzz.

Di Canio's arrival is already making waves. It last night prompted the departure of club director and Labour's former foreign secretary David Miliband from the board due to the man from Rome's admiration for Mussolini amid some well-aired political views. “I’m a fascist, not a racist,” said Di Canio back in 2005.

Politics don’t really come into it for Sunderland. They would hand the job to Nigel Farage or Shagger Norris if it guaranteed survival. Di Canio has nothing to lose. If Sunderland go down, Di Canio can blame it on O’Neill’s recruitment policy. If they stay up on his watch, he will not be shy in extolling the benefits of his healing touch.

The wisdom in Sunderland's decision to sack O'Neill will only be seen if relegation is avoided. Short will be left short-changed if his club miss out on the suitcases of cash coming the way of the Premier League's prospective residents.

The Premier League sold their TV rights for £3 billion last summer which will mean at least £15m more for each club next season. The team finishing bottom of the table a year from now is set to be awarded more than the £60.6m Manchester City collected for snaring last season's title.

Money talks. Sunderland have done the maths. O'Neill's returns didn't add up.

He won seven of his first 10 Premier League matches in charge of Sunderland, but only nine of the last 45. They have failed to win any of their last eight matches. Not because they are unfortunate, but because they lack the necessary quality to compete with any degree of certainty at the elite levels.

Their run-in is fraught with danger. They face Chelsea and Newcastle away from home in the next fortnight followed by a home match with Everton on April 20. A visit to Aston Villa is followed by home matches with Stoke and Southampton before they visit Tottenham on the final day of the season.

Much has been made of the ankle injury that Sunderland's Scotland forward Fletcher suffered against Wales last Friday that will see him miss the rest of the season. Fletcher is the club's top goalscorer having scored 11 of their 33 league goals, but Sunderland were struggling with him in the side.

When O'Neill's Celtic lost 3-2 to Jose Mourinho's Porto after extra-time in a gripping UEFA Cup final a decade ago, he was tipped as a possible successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. He was linked with Liverpool and apparently verbally accepted the Leeds United job from Peter Ridsdale in 2003, or so Ridsdale claims, before that fell through.

When Steve McClaren was dismissed at England manager, he was interviewed by the FA before Fabio Capello was appointed. But he never quite landed the whopper of a role his motivational techniques hinted at. And now at the age of 61, he is again without a job.

O'Neill's stock has fallen with his failure at Sunderland. He will return. At the moment, it is difficult to see where. Brian Clough, a figure he played under during Nottingham's Forest's rise to two European Cups in 1979 and 1980, was sacked after 44 days at Leeds United before discovering a treasure trove in Nottingham.

O'Neill established Leicester in the Premier League and coached them to League Cups in 1997 and 2000. "Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius," Clough once said of O'Neill. Unfortunately, Sunderland is a long way from Leicester. And 2013 far removed from the year 2000.

Sunderland are short on time and their owner short on patience. O'Neill’s sacking may yet lead Sunderland to the palace of wisdom. They have replaced Mr Motivator with Mr Motivator.

Like himself, Di Canio has suggested Mussolini was misunderstood. "His actions were often vile. But all this was motivated by a higher purpose. He was basically a very principled individual."

Di Canio’s higher purpose is keeping Sunderland aboard the life raft.

With Di Canio overseeing the coach trip, Newcastle away in a fortnight’s time could be full of mayhem. Just how Paolo likes it.

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