Following back-to-back league losses, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers Championship rivals fired manager Michael Beale after just 12 games in charge. After Sunderland fired the well-liked Tony Mowbray, Beale, 43, was brought to the Stadium of Light in December and given a two-and-a-half year contract.
But in the six games that Beale would lose in his brief tenure, their bitterest rivals Newcastle United defeated them 3-0 at home in the FA Cup. After their recent losses to Huddersfield and Birmingham, Sunderland is currently tenth in the league. The club’s supporters, who strongly disapproved of the prior manager, found it difficult to accept his appointment.
With his most recent dismissal, Beale’s two previous employment have also ended disastrously. His tenure at Rangers terminated in October after just 10 months and forty-three games. Additionally, it means that Beale’s 12-match tenure as Sunderland’s permanent manager is now the shortest in the team’s history—just one fewer than Paolo Di Canio’s 13 in 2013.
Although it is not official yet, Mike Dodds filled in as head coach in the interval between Mowbray’s departure and Beale’s arrival two weeks later. It is likely that he will do so again. The Sunderland team will play Swansea on Saturday, February 24, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m.
Rivals of Sunderland in London, Millwall and QPR, are ranked 21st and 22nd in the Championship, respectively, with the former having lost their past four games. On Saturday, March 16, QPR will play Sunderland, and on Saturday, April 20, Millwall will play them.
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