A key Sunderland manager update has been shared, after the news that Liam Rosenior had pulled out of contention.
Sunderland recently suffered another devastating blow in their search for a new manager, after Liam Rosenior withdrew himself from contention.
The former Hull City boss was set for a second interview with Sunderland officials after he was sacked by Hull City at the end of last season.
But Rosenior withdrew himself from the running to become the next Sunderland manager, in hopes of landing the vacant Burnley job.
It comes after Sunderland had agreed a deal for Will Still to replace Michael Beale, only for Still to pull out of the deal and later take the RC Lens job.
Sunderland are nearing four months without a manager. There seems to be a very thin list of names who’ve been linked with Sunderland, and who are still available.
Rene Maric is yet to officially take the position as Vincent Kompany’s no.2 at Bayern Munich but is still expected to do so.
Elsewhere, QPR boss Marti Cifuentes is liked by Sunderland who’d have to pay a six-figure compensation fee to poach the Spaniard from Loftus Road.
Sunderland have unnamed manager candidates in contention
Following the news of Rosenior withdrawing from Sunderland contention, an emerging report from The Northern Echo has revealed that there are some unnamed coaches still in the running.
The Northern Echo write that there are ‘a couple of head coach candidates who have long been in contention but have been kept under wraps’.
The same report adds that, after being snubbed by both Still and Rosenior, ‘Sunderland sources were keen to stress that the Black Cats weren’t going back to square one in their search for a new boss’.
Also, ‘talks with candidates other than Rosenior have taken place very recently’, though who these unnamed candidates could be, remains to be seen.
The unavoidable problem Sunderland now face
Sunderland must now be well down their managerial shortlist after missing out on Still and then Rosenior, who certainly seemed like a plan B.
The Black Cats may now be beyond plan B, unless they can hire someone like Maric who has been linked with the Stadium of Light job for some time.
Maric seems unlikely though, and so too does Cifuentes; even if Sunderland paid him out of QPR, there’d be a sense that it was something of a panic buy.
Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman aren’t completely back to the drawing board, though, as the above report reveals, which is something for Sunderland fans to pin hope to.
But journalist Michael Graham summed up the state of affairs perfectly; Speakman and co, whoever they bring in now, their reputation cannot be salvaged.
If whoever comes in does poorly, it’s of course the fault of Speakman and the board. If whoever comes in does well, it’ll look like pure luck, as Sunderland haven’t got the managers they initially wanted.
It’s a very desperate time for Sunderland. The summer transfer window officially opens for business on June 14th and the Black Cats don’t have a manager in place, nor do they even have a front-runner.