Sunderland ‘could finally’ hire their ‘top choice’ manager despite recent reports.
Sunderland have endured a difficult few months after sacking Michael Beale in February.
The Black Cats appointed Mike Dodds until the end of the season, but are now approaching 100 days without a permanent manager, while the season came to an end over two weeks ago.
Sunderland have been linked with a long list of names, but it is rapidly shortening as potential suitors take up jobs elsewhere.
Danny Rohl has signed a new contract at Sheffield Wednesday, Rene Maric is set to become Bayern Munich’s assistant head coach and Bo Svensson is joining Union Berlin.
The one consistent name in Sunderland’s pursuit is Will Still, who has been under consideration since December.
It was expected that he would become their new manager after he left Reims, however the club are yet to appoint him and the move was thrown into doubt when he opened talks with Norwich City.
It is believed that the 31-year-old visited the Canaries’ training ground after they sacked David Wagner, before further reports claimed that the Black Cats were now ‘increasingly unlikely‘ to bring Still to Wearside.
Will Still to Sunderland back on?
However, it now looks like a deal for Still could still be on.
Former editor-in-chief of 365 sites, Ignazio Genuardi, wrote on X: “After visiting the Norwich facilities, W. #Still could finally join another Championship club. Following his departure from Reims, the Belgian arouses the concrete interest of #Sunderland , who had already seriously looked into his case a few months ago.”
It is unclear whether Sunderland’s pursuit of Still ever actually hit a snag, but they had already been handed a boost when it was reported that Norwich would appoint Johannes Hoff Thorup.
Sunderland fans’ patience is running thin
It is hard to predict what will actually happen in Sunderland’s manager search due to the lack of communication from the club, but fans will be eager to see Still join over the next week or so.
It’s unbelievable that it has almost been 100 days since Beale was sacked and a replacement still hasn’t been brought in.
There is really no excuse, with multiple clubs having already sacked their manager and brought in a new one in recent weeks.
The Wearside outfit are really dragging their pursuit on and supporters won’t have it if they end up having to bring in a second or third choice because they were too slow to appoint their first.