Wilkinson declares war on Sunderland 'egos'

Tim Rich
Wednesday 11 December 2002 01:00 GMT
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Howard Wilkinson has reaffirmed that he will not shy away from making unpopular decisions as Sunderland look set for a long struggle against relegation from the Premiership.

The Sunderland manager demonstrated as much on Monday night when he substituted the home fans' favourite Kevin Phillips after just over an hour of the 3-0 defeat against Manchester City at the Stadium of Light.

Phillips made a point of applauding the sparse home crowd before signalling to Wilkinson that he had had enough. Afterwards Wilkinson made it clear he will continue to do what he thinks is right.

"Unfortunately there are unhappy players on the pitch and, given the situation we were in, we had to either change personnel or change tactics," Wilkinson said. "I have to to make sure I stay strong and make the right decisions. Sometimes those decisions might not be the most popular ones. At the moment what we can't afford is too many egos around the place."

But Wilkinson insisted he had not seen any show of defiance from Phillips as he left the pitch after being substituted. "I'm not aware of the gesture, so I can't comment on it or construe it in any way," Wilkinson said.

Youri Djorkaeff said he was enjoying his stint at Bolton Wanderers after his "nightmare" experience with Kaiserslautern and at the World Cup.

"For the last six months, I have had a great time in the Premiership with Bolton," the French international midfielder said. "The other day we received lots of statistics. The English are crazy about them.

"I had super statistics and what made me especially happy was that they were consistent ones, meaning my figures are the same against Manchester United, Arsenal or lesser teams."

The 1998 World Cup winner joined Bolton in February after falling out of favour with the Kaiserslautern coach, Andreas Brehme. Having been called up by Roger Lemerre to replace the injured Robert Pires in the France squad for the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the striker had to endure a disastrous campaign as the defending champions were knocked out after the group stage of the competition.

Djorkaeff said he was very honoured to have been chosen as the Wanderers captain in the absence of the injured Iceland defender Gudni Bergsson.

"To be captain is very important in England, it's a great honour and a real mark of consideration," he said. "The English mentality is special. It's a dressing room mentality. My coach told me the other day he was in charge of the pitch and the players were in charge of managing the dressing rooms."

Djorkaeff said his Bolton experience has restored his faith in the game, especially after his dreadful spell in the Bundesliga.

"Germany remains a real nightmare for me because there, even if I don't want to generalise, people are nasty or at least they were in the club," he said. "That the coach [Brehme] could not stand me, fair enough, but it went way too far."

Djorkaeff said that Kaiserslautern's financial crisis, the seriousness of which became evident after his departure, proved he had been right to stand against Brehme. "Today, the club has collapsed, the management has gone," he said. "In a way, it's a revenge for me because I suffered like never before.

"They tried to destroy me," added Djorkaeff, who also blamed the German press, saying it "hated French players".

Referring to France's World Cup failure in the summer, Djorkaeff added: "We lost all together the same way as we won all together so many times. To look for someone to blame is easy once the harm is done but it's pointless."

The Oldham Athletic manager, Iain Dowie, is keen to sign the England Under-20 international centre-half Paul Reid from Rangers in a quest to shore up his side's defence. Dowie watched the defender in action in the Old Firm reserve game on a recent visit to Scotland and is hoping to set up a loan deal.

Reid was signed by Rangers from Carlisle United and previously had a spell with Preston last season. At Oldham he would fill in for Clint Hill, who is currently out with a broken leg.

Dowie needs a new centrehalf quickly as Hill is out for several months. The Reid deal is a possibility if they can cut through the various red-tape problems created by the new transfer regulations.

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