Thursday 12 May 2016 16:50, UK
Sam Allardyce has revealed how his management skills and team unity inspired Sunderland to secure their Premier League survival.
The Black Cats avoided the drop on Wednesday night on the back of two stunning displays with home victories over Chelsea and Everton.
It was an incredible turnaround for a team that looked doomed at the end of last year.
Allardyce, who admitted he was still nursing a hangover, said: "December was dark from a weather point of view and dark at the club. We lost five in a row but there was a window of opportunity.
"That window was January and the new lads have done so well to settle at the club. Since then it's been much brighter.
"It's been a long haul but finally we have got to where I've said we needed to be, and that's with more points than games played."
Allardyce has had a colourful management career including spells at Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham over the last 17 years and has the incredible record of never experiencing relegation from the top flight.
Asked how he got the best out of his players, the 61-year-old added: "Management technique is the biggest part.
"It's dealing with people, not just the players but all the staff you work with. It's your guidance, determination and belief and your desire to achieve certain goals and set those goals out to the players and staff.
"You make tough decisions because that's your job and you hope to earn respect. I try to make the atmosphere warm and inviting.
"There are difficulties, many difficulties to overcome, but it's all about us sticking together to get through the thick of it and get out the other end. In the end it seems to have worked well."
Speaking after the game on Wednesday night, Allardyce stressed the importance of recruitment because "this football club cannot be doing a lap of honour by avoiding relegation again".
"I'll be meeting [chairman and owner] Ellis Short next week," he added on Thursday three days before the season's final game at Watford.
"It will be our time to reflect on next season and to set out a lot of where we are going, what we'll be doing and how we'll be doing it.
"At the end of that conversation we will determine a way forward for Sunderland. Hopefully it will be more successful than the last three or four years."
