The view of Paolo Di Canio depends on where one stands.

The Sunderland board regard him as a potential saviour, the fans have him on a limited probation and the players will accept him as a conduit to redemption. The chatterers in columns and on the airwaves behold him as a fascist.

Tom Boyd once looked at him from behind. "He immediately showed me he was a great player," said the former Celtic full-back.

"In the first training session he went past me, showing great pace and good feet. And there were not too many who did that," he adds with the certainty of one who has been awarded 71 international caps.

Boyd, who played with the Italian in the 1996-97 season, was less surprised than most at Di Canio's appointment at Sunderland.

"The club will look at his politics and believe it is an irrelevance," says the former Celtic captain. "Frankly, if you take away his views it is a routine appointment. A club is struggling with a run of difficult fixtures approaching. It cannot be a shock that a new manager is brought in."

Sunderland are one point above the relegation spots with seven matches to play. These include a trip to Newcastle United for a derby that is crucial to both sides. The famed Di Canio temperament will be tested in the next few weeks but Boyd remembers an intelligent, driven player who was "nice" off the field.

"He was very opinionated in the dressing-room. You always knew what Paolo thought and he had a few run-ins with players but nothing that was not over quickly. He bought into the dressing-room banter but was focused on the football. He was a deep thinker about the game," says Boyd.

"I was not surprised he became a manager because I have always felt that flair players can read the game quickly. There was once an expression about great players that all their brains were in their feet. You could not say that about Paolo. He was smart and I always thought he would go into coaching."

The 44-year-old has had a dramatic rise as a coach. His 21 months at Swindon Town brought promotion from League 2 and the side was in the play-off positions in League 1 when Di Canio resigned in February.

Cynics, struggling to remember any furore over Di Canio's appointment at Swindon, may believe that it is all right to be a fascist in the lower leagues but not in the Premier League.

Jeremy Wray, the former Swindon chairman who gave Di Canio his first coaching job, has no doubts Sunderland have made a sound appointment.

"He will galvanise the team. He is passionate; he eats, sleeps and drinks it," Wray says. "He is full-on, 24 hours a day and will be focused on the last seven games of the season. If you are looking for a catalyst for change he is absolutely the right man."

This is the nub of the matter for Boyd. "There will be talk about his politics but this will not take place in the dressing-room. I never had any discussion with him on those matters and Sunderland are fighting for their lives so everything will be focused on that."

Boyd, who played professional football for 20 years with Motherwell, Chelsea and Celtic, has a firm grasp of the reality of football.

"It is like applying an electric shock to a team," he says of the appointment of a new manager. "All the players suddenly have to prove themselves. The first team picks under Martin O'Neill can no longer be sure of their places and the guys on the sidelines will be hoping to break into the starting XI. This creates an atmosphere than can help a side get results."

Sunderland have not won since a 3-2 victory at Wigan Athletic on January 19. This is the sort of momentum that starts with people saying the team is too good to go down and ends in the Championship.

Ellis Short, the American owner of Sunderland, therefore had a decision to make on Saturday after Manchester United defeated his side. Did he stick or twist? The cliché that he has taken a gamble is a massive understatement. He has bet the house, or the Stadium of Light, on a maverick.

The price of failure for Short is considerable with relegation to the Championship coming with a hefty price tag and with the added obstacle of no certainty of a quick return to the riches of the Premier League.

It may take just two wins - three would certainly be enough - for Sunderland to escape the drop, barter in the close season and be prepared for another challenge in the top league next season.

Short decided that O'Neill was not the man to lead this side to those victories. Di Canio, who has undoubted vigour and charisma, is the owner's choice to invigorate the team.

The outside world may be consumed by talk of fascist salutes and Di Canio's alleged defence of the principles of Mussolini. On planet football, Short will be more worried about how his head coach finds goals in the absence of Steven Fletcher, who was injured on Scotland duty.

Political commentators may find this reprehensible but there is a pragmatism in football that is linked closely to financial imperatives.

Di Canio said last night: "I don't want to talk about politics because it's not my area. We are not in the Houses of Parliament, we are in a football club. I want to talk about sport. I want to talk about football."

The football argument is not about whether a radical, authoritarian state is desirable or whether ultra-nationalism is the route to perdition or to self-realisation.

It is about a desperate, perhaps reckless attempt to save Sunderland from dropping into a financial chasm.

It is nine years since Di Canio made his infamous salutes and some time since the "I am a fascist, not a racist" interview. The tattooed firebrand has seven games to make his mark in a turbulent present.

The Italian's political beliefs will not be a factor in this mission. His emotional volatility and his inexperience might be. His coaching style has been described as "management by hand grenade".

Much of the outrage over his appointment has been manufactured but be in no doubt: Di Canio is ready to explode on Wearside.