It looked like a marriage made in heaven: a sleeping giant in the north-east of England combined with a manager who had achieved great things at his previous club. In July 1985, Lawrie McMenemy rode into Sunderland promising to bring the good times back and to restore some pride to an area that definitely needed a boost. The Gateshead-born manager was greeted by back-slapping supporters but within two years the fans were ready to chase him out of town.
On paper, McMenemy’s achievements at Southampton made him an ideal candidate to resuscitate Sunderland. An FA Cup triumph in 1976, a League Cup final in 1979 and qualification for the Uefa Cup three times in the 1980s – including a runners-up spot to Liverpool in the 1983-84 season – led to an approach from Manchester United to take over from Dave Sexton in 1981. McMenemy turned the offer down, citing loyalty to Southampton and family circumstances as reasons, but come the mid-1980s he was looking for a new challenge.
Resigning while on a tour in the Caribbean, McMenemy ended his 12-year reign at Southampton and was linked with the vacant position at Roker Park. Sunderland had reached the Milk Cup final in 1985 but relegation to the Second Division spelt the end for manager Len Ashurst, so when McMenemy became available, Sunderland chairman Tom Cowie was understandably excited: “McMenemy is the man for us. I would move heaven and earth to get him.”
McMenemy’s appointment seemed a sensible move but Sunderland’s decision to make him the highest paid manager in the country in an area of such high unemployment did not sit comfortably with many supporters, who were immediately asked to stomach a 20% rise in season ticket prices (up to £108). Supporters’ club official Billy Simmons voiced his displeasure: “This is a depressed area but it looks like we are also being asked to pay for Lawrie McMenemy’s wages. Who wants to lash out these prices?”
Figures varied on the salary McMenemy was receiving – between £166,000 and £200,000 a year according to whichever paper you read – but the amount was constantly used against him. When it was reported towards the end of McMenemy’s tenure that the club (who were £700,000 in debt and had an overdraft of over £500,000) were paying for his house, bills and car, most fans would have happily driven him away in his rented gold Mercedes.
McMenemy’s appointment as a managing director also posed problems. “Unlike 90% of managers I won’t have to look over my shoulder and worry about the sack,” said McMenemy during the press conference on his arrival at the club. “I don’t have that fear because I won’t ever get the sack again.” He may have been joking but McMenemy soon discovered that his dual role was far from ideal.
McMenemy later admitted that the Sunderland job was a lot harder than he had anticipated. At Southampton he had blended together experienced players with youngsters, with Peter Osgood, Mick Channon, Alan Ball, Kevin Keegan, Mick Mills and Peter Shilton providing the basis of his successful teams on the south coast. The same approach did not work at Sunderland, as he soon discovered that the Second Division was not the place for players past their best.
“Older players know what to do on and off the field,” said McMenemy as he brought in George Burley, Alan Kennedy, Frank Gray, Dave Swindlehurst and Eric Gates. Some were more successful than others but over time it was evident that the Southampton blueprint was far from effective. McMenemy never found the right goalkeeper to replace Chris Turner, who left for Manchester United shortly after McMenemy’s arrival. At Southampton, McMenemy had been lucky to have Peter Shilton as his last line of defence but he struggled to settle upon a solid No1 at Sunderland. McMenemy used six keepers at the club – Jim McDonagh, Bob Bolder, Andy Dibble, Cameron Duncan, Bobby Mimms and Iain Hesford – hardly a strong foundation on which to build his team.
Relegated clubs are often tipped to come straight back up and Sunderland were installed as favourites to make an immediate return to the top flight. “The Second Division will be enlivened by the presence of Lawrie McMenemy and his Sunderland side, who I anticipate setting the standard for Alan Ball’s Portsmouth, Eddie Gray’s Leeds and newcomers Millwall to follow,” wrote Steve Curry in the Express, capturing the mood of the press. What could possibly go wrong?
With all the fuss over McMenemy’s move, the last thing he needed was a poor start. So when Sunderland promptly lost their first five league matches without scoring a goal, the disastrous McMenemy era got off to the most appropriate of beginnings. The highest crowd of the season (21,202) poured through the turnstiles at Roker Park on a wave of optimism but the 2-0 defeat to Blackburn ruined the party. After a 3-0 loss at home to Oldham, McMenemy turned on some of his players, something that became a recurring theme.
“Ah well, that’s August out of the way. I don’t think I’ve got much chance for Manager of the Month,” McMenemy quipped after the final defeat of the run at Millwall. McMenemy’s sarcasm could not hide the fact that Sunderland’s start to the season was the worst in their 106-year history. A 3-3 draw at home to Grimsby and a 1-1 draw at Leeds stopped the run of defeats but Sunderland were bottom after seven matches and looked more like relegation candidates than promotion favourites.
Seven wins out of the next 11 League matches steadied the ship, although even during this period things did not run smoothly for McMenemy. Knocked out of the League Cup by Fourth Division Swindon, the manager had a tea cup thrown at him in a row with striker David Hodgson and placed 13 members of his squad on the transfer list after he accused them of not doing enough to earn their wages.
McMenemy’s revolving-door selection policy wasn’t helping. In his first year at the club, players such as Hodgson, Clive Walker, Gordon Chisholm, Shaun Elliott, Barry Venison, Nick Pickering and Howard Gayle departed. They had been part of the relegation campaign but they were not adequately replaced, as McMenemy struggled to find the right blend.
The season was an unmitigated disaster from December onwards. A run of just two wins in 17 matches left the club in danger of consecutive relegations, as gates began to drop – just 11,338 saw the home win over Fulham in April. Sunderland somehow stayed up at the end of the 1985-86 season. In the relegation zone with two matches to go, 2-0 wins over Shrewsbury and Stoke saved them.
McMenemy promised Sunderland fans that they would not go through the same ordeal again but, if he was trying to win them over, he didn’t help himself when he left his assistant, Lew Chatterley, to put the players through early pre-season training while he sunned himself in Florida. Simmons, of the supporters’ club, said the manager should give his month’s wages back for the club.
“I would not be sorry if he handed in his resignation tomorrow,” said club director Barry Batey at the start of the 1986-87 season. “On his record to date he has been a disaster. He is the most expensive flop this club has known. His team has served up drivel while he has been getting £100 an hour.”
McMenemy responded, saying he had no intention of quitting, his team had not been good enough and some players were not living up to their reputations. His final point sounded crazy in 1986 and has not improved with time: “The only way I’ll make a break from this club is when we win the First Division championship or the European Cup – that’s how determined I am to see it through.” He would be gone in months.
For a while, looked like things were starting to improve. Despite a 6-1 hammering at Blackburn, Sunderland only lost one other match in their first 12, and sat in fifth position, which would be good enough to give them slot in the playoffs under the new league system. The team would go on to reach the playoffs, but the Division Three version (the first two seasons of the playoffs involved three teams from the lower division contesting the last league position with a team that finished just above the relegation zone in the higher league).
McMenemy’s last few months at the club were messy. With debts spiralling at the club, he took a pay cut rumoured to be £50,000 but by this time there was nothing he could do to secure any goodwill from the fans. The team won just one point in six matches during March and April. After the final defeat – against Sheffield United in front of just 8,544 fans at Roker Park – the point of no return had been reached.
When the cars of McMenemy and new chairman Bob Murray were vandalised and hundreds of fans protested, the two men met to discuss the way forward. Murray accepted McMenemy’s resignation, with the manager later revealing in his autobiography that the chairman had already approached Bob Stokoe anyway. It was an apt end to a sorry story.
McMenemy also indicated in his book that he resigned to give a new manager the chance to keep Sunderland up. Alas, Stokoe was unable to work any magic, as Sunderland dropped into the third tier for the first time in their history. A 3-2 defeat to Barnsley on the final day of the season – Sunderland had been 2-0 up and Mark Proctor missed a penalty – took the team into the play-offs, and there was worse to come.
Another missed penalty from Proctor proved damaging as Gillingham edged Sunderland out on away goals and a tearful Stokoe left the club unable to arrest the slide into Division Three that had started under McMenemy. Fortunately the only way was up and new manager Denis Smith took Sunderland out of the third tier at the first attempt. The dawn after the darkness.
McMenemy – who will will forever be known as Lawrie Mackemenemy on Wearside – never managed another club team in England. At the conclusion of the “Roker Hell” chapter of his autobiography, McMenemy apologises for his contribution to Sunderland’s relegation to Division Three. “I will be eternally sorry that I played a part in that surrender. I am judged as a manager by what happens on the pitch and that was unacceptable at Sunderland.” At least that is one thing that Sunderland fans and McMenemy can agree on.
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