Sunderland now look to be closing in on their new manager.
That’s according to L’Equipe, who have reported that the Black Cats’ main managerial target is ‘ready to pack his bags’ and complete a move to the Championship.
It has been over a week since Tony Mowbray was sacked, having won only two of their last nine games prior.
A long list of managers have already been linked with the Wearside hot seat, including Paul Heckingbottom, Julien Sable and Kim Hellberg.
The latter was the favourite at one point, having held talks with Kyril Louis-Dreyfus last week. However, the Swede now looks set to be appointed the new manager of Hammarby.
Sunderland now look to have their sights set on Will Still, who has been heavily linked with the club since Mowbray departed.
The club seemed to have rapidly progressed on that front this week, with recent reports claiming that Louis-Dreyfus has held ‘positive talks’ with the Reims coach.
The Black Cats now look to be even closer to bringing Still in, with L’Equipe reporting that he is ‘very interested’ in moving to Wearside and is ‘ready to pack his bags in the coming days’.
It claims that the 31-year-old is worried that he can’t take Reims any further, with the new year’s AFCON and Asia Cup potentially causing some issues for the French side. He is also concerned about Reims’ plans for the January transfer window.
RMC Sport have reported that Sunderland are ready to offer Still a ‘real influence’ with the recruitment, while they will have to pay a compensation fee to Reims if they agree to let him go.
How exciting is Will Still?
Will Still is easily the most exciting and intriguing name on the list of managers that have been linked with Sunderland.
The coach only turned 31 years old in October, but is already making a name for himself in Europe and has led Reims to within touching distance of the Champions League qualifiers.
Still can also speak Belgian, French, Dutch and English and just seems like the perfect manager for our young squad, especially the likes of Abdoullah Ba and Adil Aouchiche.
Hopefully we can bring him to the club sooner rather than later, though the timing of his arrival could also be influenced by the start of Ligue 1’s winter break on 20th December.
Thankfully, Mike Dodds has been absolutely brilliant over the past two games, so there is a lot less pressure on the board to bring in Tony Mowbray’s replacement right now.