Dick Advocaat has warned potential contenders for the managerial vacancy at the Stadium of Light that Sunderland’s squad is not good enough to avoid another relegation skirmish.
As the newly departed head coach outlined the reasons behind his resignation, Ellis Short, Sunderland’s owner, began compiling a short-list believed to include Sam Allardyce, Sean Dyche, Nigel Pearson and David Moyes.
By way of rather messy complication, the departing sporting director, Lee Congerton, who tendered his resignation last Friday, will spend part of his notice period recruiting the club’s sixth manager in four years.
Congerton knows Brendan Rodgers, the former Liverpool manager, very well, the pair having previously worked together at Chelsea, but whether Rodgers might come into Sunderland’s equation is unclear.
After making so many past mistakes Short, too, is expected to be heavily involved in the latest appointment and has already made it clear that he regards top-level experience as imperative and is not prepared to gamble on a promising young manager from the lower divisions – or the Manchester City under-21 coach Patrick Vieira. The American financier is thought to be open-minded about whether to persist with the current director of football system or revert to a more traditional model featuring greater managerial autonomy.
Although Sunderland ideally want the new man in place in time for the trip to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday week, they will take their time to select the right candidate and no appointment seems imminent.
While Allardyce is the bookmakers’ favourite he is believed to have flown to Spain on Monday without receiving a formal approach from the club he once played for. Like Pearson, dismissed by Leicester during the summer, and Rodgers, Allardyce has the attraction of being instantly available with no compensation payment to another party involved.
Much depends on whether the former West Ham manager would be prepared to interrupt a sabbatical in order to return to the region where he previously endured an unhappy stint at Newcastle but, so far, the messages from his camp have been mixed. While Allardyce would be extremely reluctant to work with a director of football, both Dyche and Pearson are comfortable with such continental style set-ups.
Sunderland were poised to reach a financial settlement with Burnley over Dyche last June before Advocaat performed a U-turn and returned to the post he had retired from a month earlier. At the time Congerton had encouraged Short to poach him from Turf Moor, although reports last night suggested that the 44-year-old has already rejected Sunderland’s latest approach.
Pearson divides opinion but his feat in keeping Leicester in the Premier League last season has not gone unnoticed, with his previous experience in the north-east, captaining Middlesbrough and coaching at Newcastle, possibly also counting favourably.
Currently struggling at Real Sociedad, Moyes is another option. During his days at Goodison Park there were times when Sunderland cast covetous eyes at the Scotsman and there are some who feel Moyes would be a good fit at a club with several similarities to Everton.
Whoever takes over would do well to heed the caution from Advocaat, whose resignation was confirmed on Sunday. “Our squad was simply not good enough,” the 68-year-old former Holland coach told Studio Voetbal. “The club knew we had to strengthen ourselves but the chairman never told me how much we could spend. The struggle against relegation is not my cup of tea. It was time for someone else to take over. I became negative and didn’t feel like myself.”
It is no secret that the Dutchman, like Congerton, had become dismayed by Short’s reluctance to follow his advice and invest significant sums in root and branch reform of a squad which has spent the past few seasons dallying with relegation. Damningly, both men feared longer-term association with Sunderland would tarnish their hard-won reputations.
After confirming that he had resigned last week but been persuaded to supervise Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with West Ham by Short, Advocaat – whose name was persistently chanted by many of the 43,000 crowd – also told De Telegraaf that he had no regrets about embarking on a second spell with the team he rescued from relegation last spring. “Sunderland is in my view a very beautiful club,” he said. “I would not have missed this for anything.”
The coaches Paul Bracewell and Robbie Stockdale have been placed in caretaker charge of a squad subjected to a withering analysis from Gary Neville. “I don’t think they are a good set of players. Full stop,” the former Manchester United right-back told Sky Sports. “They are a bit of a shower, I think.”
