Di Canio’s incredible work ethic has drawn attention since taking over at the Stadium of Light, with the Italian and his close-knit coaching staff working from 8.30am until at least midnight every day.
Paolo Di Canio: “In here we start at half past eight and work until midnight.
"Sometimes we might have a few minutes for the music channels in the office but we work.
“It was like this in the first three months at Swindon, exactly the same.
"I advised my staff then not to bring their family with them because they are now professional managers.
“To deliver our mentality, especially in League Two in England, where it takes longer, we have to go through a very difficult situation. We didn’t have enough players to be honest.
“In terms of professionalism, if we want to change completely the habits we have to live together 24 hours! We used to live together, every day until the night, sometimes 3-4am.
“We lost four of the first five games at the beginning of the season. It didn’t work at first because while we were playing good football, we were missing a striker. In the end we were right.
“Here it is exactly the same. We will work this way until October.
"We work together every day and every hour for 24 hours. They probably don’t like me. They probably want to stay with their family!
"But here at Sunderland we feel more responsibility. We have thousands, maybe a million, to keep happy, so if we want to change habits we have to burn our brain for 24 hours and the way to deliver this habit is to build a good future.
"Only this way can we deliver on the expectation. This is a big club.
“It is too much for some. Maybe people think I am crazy but this is my mission, this is my life. I want to become the best.
“I am sure you have to work hard in every environment, a banker or businessman.
“Obviously you have to have knowledge because you can work for 24 hours a day but if you are doing the wrong things you cannot deliver. But I am sure we are going to deliver here.
“I don’t ask the players to work 24 hours!
“If you become an athlete and they realise this is an advantage for them, they don’t want to have Wednesday off. They want Wednesday in, They want to work.”