Sunderland striker Danny Graham has revealed what it was like to work under Paolo Di Canio during his first spell as a player on Wearside, and it certainly seems as though the Italian put the players through it.

The Black Cats are currently in the play-off places in League One after a solid enough start to proceedings but they'll be looking to get more goals than they have so far and Graham will also want to improve his tally.

He's been speaking about his first spell at the club to the Open Goal podcast, however, and, perhaps expectedly, the spell under the enigmatic Di Canio came up in conversation.

The Italian arrived and results picked up early on but things soon dropped off and he was soon gone the from Wearside, with it perhaps understandable when you read what Graham had to say about his tenure.

He explained:

"He was so agitated from the moment he got in there it was weird. He seemed to have a bee in his bonnet saying we weren't good enough and that we'd underperformed.

"He was laying into us to try and get a reaction. To be fair it kind of worked for two or three games but once it fizzled out - that little run, he became a bit brutal, to be honest.

"He used to spit in the air and let it land on his forehead. I was like, what are you doing it's not even funny. You just look weird mate.

"He's quite scary. Nobody used to have a go back at him at the start. We had a fitness coach who used to click all the time and he was doing it to John O'Shea and Wes Brown and these guys have won the Champions League.

"There are ways to talk to people but he was just clicking at people.

Graham went on:

"Di Canio wasn't too bad at the start but it was when we weren't doing too great and we went on a bad run.

"I remember we did a drill against the mannequins and someone crossed the ball and Connor Wickham missed his header.

"He started screaming at him I will fight you. He was 19-years-old and I was thinking - what are you doing?

"I remember we did 11vs11 and Craig Gardner drilled a ball out to the right and it's missed Phil Bardsley and went out of play. He stopped the session and made us run.

"Everything had to be perfect but in football it's never that way. In his eyes it had to be.

"He was constantly on the strikers' back. To be fair to him his finishing was a joke. He'd take a touch and whip it into the corner then look at you.

"We went to Italy and it was just pasta for seven days. There was no ketchup or nothing. Whatever they brought out we had to eat. We had a game against his mates on a local playing field.

"They were having cigarettes and we were shocked. It was 13-0 at half time. I couldn't believe it. He was buzzing.

"His morning sessions were tactical and his afternoons were an absolute slog. We were just running around the track. It was mental.

"It's the most I've ever done but it was getting to the point where it just wasn't getting you anywhere because you were that tired and fatigued.

"If you said that, he would just hit the roof. He told us even on his days off he used to run.

"It all boiled over to a point where we all had a meeting and went through him basically."

The Verdict 

Di Canio had some bright moments in charge of Sunderland but it quickly turned sour and it certainly seemed as though the players quickly lost motivation under him, which you can perhaps understand based on Graham's words.

The striker will now be looking to help them achieve promotion this season and time will tell if he succeeds in doing so.