Sunderland manager Gus Poyet: People are expecting me to walk out but I'm not going to quit

Black Cats are currently bottom of the Premier League on 25 points

Damian Spellman
Wednesday 16 April 2014 12:45 BST
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Gus Poyet looks on from the touchline
Gus Poyet looks on from the touchline

Gus Poyet has insisted he is ready to take on the challenge of finding a lasting solution to Sunderland's problems.

The 46-year-old Uruguayan has admitted the time has come to address the club's long-running problems by finding another way to shake things up than simply changing the manager.

Head coach Poyet dismissed online rumours that he could resign from his role, telling national newspapers: "It looks to me that people are expecting me to walk out and I don't know why they have that impression of me. I'm not going to quit. Simple."

He believes he has an idea of what the club's underlying issues are and would welcome the opportunity to work with owner Ellis Short to put them right.

He said: "Yes, no doubt. It's me. I don't like to talk about me and I'm kissing myself and talking about myself in a nice way, it's me because I care and because I need to sort it out.

"The more solutions I find, the easier my job is going to be and I want that job to be as easy as possible.

"You don't want to be thinking 20 hours a day about a problem when it can be sorted out in five minutes, and that's the situation at the moment.

"We have to make sure we prepare the team properly for tomorrow and at the same time, you keep searching for solutions and making things better."

The Black Cats head for Manchester City on Wednesday evening sitting seven points adrift of safety and knowing time is running out fast if they are to pull off a remarkable escape.

But in the longer run, Poyet, the sixth man to sit in the manager's hot-seat in less than six years, is convinced a new approach is required if lasting success is to be achieved.

Asked if he is confident a solution can be found, he said: "I hope so. If not, we have got a problem. If not, we have got a massive problem.

"This is something we need to think about twice and analyse and check and see and have a good chat and make a decision, what we want to do and where we want to go, and we will find that.

"It's good to know because sometimes you say something and people can jump on you and say, 'Here we go, he's putting out excuses' and things like that.

"It's not 'My way or nothing'. Here we are talking about solutions for the club and maybe my way is not right, and then I am the problem.

"If I am the problem, it would be nice if somebody told me and that's it. I have got no problem with that.

"I know what I do and what I believe and what is possible and I have got my ideas, and I keep believing in that. But maybe it's me. You don't know, I don't know."

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