Summary: This AET section gets into the matter of the Paolo Di Canio hire at Sunderland from a number of angles all converging on one important point - whether the Italian lightning rod should have been considered in the first place - not because of personal beliefs or politics which has overrun the newscycle, but because there is little in his track record to suggest he could save the Black Cats from relegation. At the very core of this move by Sunderland is a level of desperation perhaps being fueled by the riches of a new TV broadcasting deal that commences in 2013-14 and perhaps Ellis Short has come to the decision that a short term fix to give the team an emotional lift is what might just work, but it is in the end nothing more than a high risk bet given that an experienced hand was failing barely a year removed from being appointed. The problems at Sunderland appear to be more systemic as the team has largely failed to deliver when it had bigger names leading the forward line like Asamoah Gyan and Darren Bent and now has placed its entire faith in a manager untested in a Premier League relegation scrap with seven matches to go. Again, this is not an issue about personal politics, although the shock of appointing a self-described fascist is a public relations disaster, but it does speak to the rumours of board-level dysfunction and disharmony while suggesting that bigger problems exist at Sunderland AFC.
