Sunderland sacked Michael Beale last month and have been without a permanent manager since, with Mike Dodds placed in interim charge.
Dodds has struggled to get a tune out of the Black Cats and his hopes of extending his stay in the role now appear to be slim.
The North East club have lost six games on the bounce and have slid down to 12th in the table, 11 points adrift of the play-offs.
This season’s hopes of gaining promotion to the Premier League are all but gone, as focus now turns towards planning for the next.
Sunderland chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been eyeing the club’s next manager and is eager to land Reims manager William Still.
Still, who only turned 31 in October, has impressed in Ligue 1 during his short career on the touchline and is viewed as the ideal man.
Though, perhaps rather controversially given the Newcastle rivalry, he has cited Eddie Howe as an inspiration.
Will Still makes controversial Eddie Howe claim
Asked which manager inspired him the most, Still said: “I was inspired by everyone. There is no coach better than another. I think there are different ideas throughout the world of football that we can learn from.
“Ancelotti too, who has done absolutely crazy things. But we also have Eddie Howe, in Newcastle, who does things very well. You have to try to capture as much information as possible to be able to apply it and not stick to just one style.”
Sunderland supporters certainly won’t be best pleased with the answer, but anyhow, he seems to be their overwhelming choice to become the next manager at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland will have to wait for Will Still
Sunderland’s season has completely fizzled out in recent weeks having endured a miserable run of form that has left them well short of the play-off positions.
So perhaps their urgency to land a permanent manager has somewhat dwindled, as the appointment of one now looks like an agenda for the summer.
Still has already hinted at his interest in the Sunderland job, claiming that he would manage a club in the Championship, though, any forthcoming appointment likely won’t commence until the end of the season.
The Belgian-born head coach has Reims in ninth and in with an outside chance of landing a European spot, so any notion that he may depart the French outfit at this stage of the campaign seems far-fetched.