The inside story of Sunderland and Tony Mowbray's long goodbye - and what you should expect next

Like all managerial departures, Tony Mowbray’s tenure unravelled both slowly and all at once. Sunderland returned from the international break in sixth place or, to put it another way, exactly where they needed to be. 

There is an undoubted ruthlessness to this decision taken by Kristjaan Speakman, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and the Sunderland board, moving quickly after a frustrating week that leaves the club still just three points off the play-off pace. It feels particularly harsh given that the build up to the Huddersfield defeat, a performance that seems to have done much to change the prevailing mood on Wearside, was heavily impacted by the chest infection which prevented Mowbray playing any significant part. Such is the life of a manager or in this case, a head coach.

This tells us that it's a decision only in small part about results. It has been a long goodbye, one that began in April when it was reported that Sunderland were eyeing up Francesco Farioli as a possible replacement. Speakman did go to Mowbray to offer some reassurance about those claims, which incidentally came just as the head coach found a way to breathe new life into Sunderland’s play-off hopes, but his body language suggested he wasn’t overly convinced by what he had heard. When the campaign ended and Mowbray huddled into a cramped bar, repurposed for the post-match press conferences and with the celebrations of the Luton fans still roaring above, he began to openly question - unprompted - whether he would be back next season.

What followed would be at best described as an uneasy truce. The football was still good, the results again impressive, and yet it felt as if those tensions were always simmering just beneath the surface. Mowbray didn’t feel the club’s pre-season tour to the US was anything like the best preparation for the rigours of the Championship campaign ahead, and he wasn’t particularly bothered who knew it. Even as Sunderland recovered from a poor pair of opening results, it wasn’t an unusual occurrence for Mowbray to be thinking aloud about life beyond his tenure.

Before and after the Millwall draw he was asked about the January transfer window, and his responses were very much those of someone who didn’t expect to be around for it anyway. Mowbray doesn’t really do pointed remarks, but we could draw our own conclusions from him stating that he hadn’t yet been involved in any planning of significance. 

Most tellingly of all, he made clear in the immediate aftermath of Sunderland’s frustration that he felt Sunderland’s play-off push could run aground should the emphasis remain too heavily on youth development, particularly in the final third where he feels the strikers recruited in the summer are at this stage just not ready for Championship football. At this point he was edging towards open rebellion, and he knew it. Mowbray has no issue playing younger players, and this team is in fact the youngest in the division this season, but in this particular case a clear point of contention had emerged .

Louis-Dreyfus’ remarks upon Mowbray’s departure were telling, referring not to results but to ‘high performance culture’ and a ‘strong playing identity’. Mowbray proved the soundest of picks to manage what should have been a difficult transition following Alex Neil’s departure, but many in the game have long suspected that Sunderland’s chairman would at some stage look to move to an ‘up-and-coming’ head coach. Mowbray’s spectacular success delayed a decision that in some ways has been on the cards since he arrived as the steady operator who could handle a difficult moment. After a difficult end to his time at Blackburn Rovers, Mowbray was reinvigorated by Sunderland's young talent and by being able to reset his working life, spending more time with his family than he had for a decade. He spoke of how he was 'fizzing with ideas' early in his tenure, and you could visibly see and feel it around the Academy of Light in the months that followed. It was a better match than anyone had anticipated, at least for a while. Mowbray, it should be said, remained a head coach who commanded respect and affection from his staff and players right up until his departure - and will do so long beyond it.

It would be no surprise if, as they have done so often in the transfer market, Sunderland now looked abroad. The dressing room has changed rapidly since Mowbray’s arrival and continues to do so as Sunderland broaden their recruitment horizons. Few in football would be surprised if that process extended to the dugout. Either way, Mowbray’s successor is likely to have a very different profile.

Under the new hierarchy Sunderland head coaches are judged not just on results now but key performance indicators, which are related to the integration of new players, giving game time to young players, playing style and much more besides. While Mowbray's record on many of these fronts is good, Sunderland clearly feel a change is needed to go to the next level and that is a judgement which will be assessed in time. Is Mowbray right that this squad will struggle to go much further without an injection of experience up front, or are the club hierarchy right that there is more talent to be unlocked within this squad not just in the short term but the longer-term too?

Mowbray departs long before his tenure could descend into open acrimony, meaning the memories left behind will be overwhelmingly fond ones. They were the team that had no strikers and often no central defenders, and yet somehow kept going away and winning. They were Amad and Roberts, nutmegs and long-rangers and the intake of breath when they began to link up. They were Clarke, unstoppable on the inside and out. They were Aji Alese up front, Lynden Gooch at centre-half. They were more number tens on one pitch than ever seemed to make sense, and yet somehow almost always seemed to work. They were Chris Rigg, Championship goalscorer at 16. They were Trai Hume rolling into midfield and Dennis Cirkin popping up at the back post. They were more successful and more fun than anyone would have dared to imagine when Mowbray walked through the door. 

And he was, too. The head coach who used to joke about his dour persona lit the club up with down-to-earth humour and empathy. On Wearside Mogga will always mean good football and a good man - no problem too big to be solved by a bag revels and another attacking midfielder. There was a Wengerian quality to Mowbray, and to his team too. They were free-flowing, fearless and steadfast to their principles right until the very last. All they lacked was ruthlessness. Mowbray put that down to youth and inexperience; the club clearly do not. 

His relentless capacity for learning and re-invention means another club will almost certainly benefit from his talents. Sunderland hope that their model, one which did create such a fruitful environment for Mowbray to work within, is robust enough to keep rolling on and that a successor can take it to the next level yet. Their fundamental belief is that they can find a better match for this squad and for this way of working - at least in the long run.

Mowbray’s legacy is a team that was expected to be battling relegation and yet now controls Championship games week in, week out. His successor, whoever that might be, inherits a platform to be envied. It is a ruthless decision and a harsh one, but Sunderland’s hierarchy have a clear vision for where they want to take the club and so far, the curve has been almost entirely upwards. As Mowbray would tell you himself: That's football.