Sunderland axed Michael Beale yesterday, but the club won’t be appointment a new manager until the summer.
Mike Dodds has been named interim boss until the end of the season.
He’ll pick up the pieces following a turbulent 12-game tenure for the 43-year-old Beale, who despite winning four of his 12 games at the helm was said to have lost the dressing room.
Several names are being linked with the Stadium of Light vacancy ahead of the summer, including Reims boss Will Still who was closely linked before Beale’s arrival.
Another name now being linked is former Swansea City and Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper.
Steve Cooper potentially open to Sunderland manager job
Cooper, 44, is currently out of work after leaving Nottingham Forest earlier this season.
The former England youth coach made his name with Swansea City before guiding Forest to promotion from the Championship in 2022.
He was linked to the Crystal Palace job before they hired Oliver Glasner, and TEAMtalk are now claiming that Cooper could potentially be attracted to the Sunderland project.
Their report writes that Cooper ‘will likely be keen to re-gain his Premier League status’ as a manager, but that a ‘club the size of Sunderland holds a lot of potential that sources say could be of interest to Cooper’.
Cooper would be a huge coup for Sunderland
Many expect Sunderland to hire an overseas manager this summer, like they were supposed to after sacking Tony Mowbray.
And Still’s name will no doubt come back into the conversation ahead of the summer, though expect the Sunderland owners to still consider options here.
Cooper is currently available and coming off the back of a good spell with Nottingham Forest.
With Swansea, Cooper achieved back-to-back play-off finishes, and with squads arguably a lot weaker than this current Sunderland side.
And he achieved the unthinkable with Forest, taking them from relegation fodder to play-off winners in the space of a season, so the pedigree is certainly there.
What’s more is that Cooper cut his teeth as a youth coach within the England ranks, winning the U17s World Cup in 2017, and that facet of his CV could be particular attractive to a Sunderland board looking to bleed in young talent.
Expect Cooper to want a Premier League return like TEAMtalk suggest, but again, the Sunderland project and the size of the club and its fanbase could be a huge lure for Cooper, and his nice demeanour would make for a nice change from Beale who angered a lot of Sunderland fans with some of his comments.