NOW I'VE FOUND MAGIC FORMULA FOR POTTERS!

ALFY NEIL HAS DISCOVERED HIS PERFECT MATCH WITH STOKE

- Chris Dunlavy

TO understand why Alex Neil quit Sunderland in such dramatic fashion last August, you need to read between the lines.

Just months after leading the Black Cats out of League One, and 24 hours before a Championship fixture at home to Norwich, Neil accepted an offer to join Stoke City.

Shock and outrage engulfed the Stadium of Light, not least because it appeared a senseless decision.

Sunderland were upwardly mobile, owned by a billionaire, and fifth in the division. Stoke, relegated from the Premier League in 2018, were mired in a morass of mediocrity, seemingly incapable of shaking off a four-year hangover.

Listening to Neil speak on the first anniversary of his arrival, however, it is not difficult to deduce why he risked the wrath of Wearside for a new life in the Potteries.

“Every club is different in terms of their power structures,” says the 42-year-old Scot, who began his coaching career as player-manager at Hamilton before spells at Norwich and Preston.

“As a manager, there’s a level of decision-making bestowed upon you in terms of what you can and can’t do, and who is responsible for what.

“At every club I’ve managed – even at Norwich, where I was very young – they’ve basically handed me the reins and allowed me to get on with it.

“Same at Preston, with Peter Ridsdale. Obviously, there were restrictions in terms of budget and things like that, but nobody really interfered.

“At Stoke, I felt I was being given the opportunity to forge what the club would look like going forward, and that was important to me.”

Note the glaring omission. Sunderland, it must be said, recovered impressively, reaching the play-off semi-finals under Neil’s successor Tony Mowbray.