A Sunderland manager target has landed himself in hot water after a run of five games without a win.
Sunderland are set to hire a new manager in the summer, and several names have been linked so far.
It comes after a fairly torrid season for the Black Cats who are currently slumped in 15th place of the Championship table and condemned to a bottom half finish.
Tony Mowbray, Michael Beale, and now Mike Dodds are the managers to have taken charge at the Stadium of Light.
The Sunderland owners‘ decision to sack Mowbray is now seeming like a rash one, following Beale’s 12 game tenure which included four wins, and now Dodds’ 12 game tenure which has included only two wins.
Sunderland eyeing Will Still at Reims
Before Beale arrived, and as soon as he was gone, Sunderland were linked with Reims boss Will Still.
The 31-year-old Belgian-English coach has become a well-known name in management, not only because of his age but because of his fine work at Reims.
He took the French club on an 18-game unbeaten run previously, but now his first full season at the club is steadily falling apart.
Reims are winless in five games now, losing their last three.
Will Still in hot water after ‘catastrophic’ performance
Last time out, Still’s Reims lost 4-1 away at Clermont.
The defeat leaves Reims in 11th place of the Ligue 1 table and all but out of the race for a European finish, with the club now eyeing a second-successive 11th place finish under Still.
After that defeat, Still said:
“It’s the worst day of my career, the hardest, the most difficult to accept… We were catastrophic!”
And an emerging report from French outlet SPORT.FR says that Still now ‘finds himself in the hot seat’ and that his future at the club seems ‘compromised’.
The same report also reiterates that Still has a €5million (£4.27million) release clause at Reims, which is ‘far from negligible’.
Is Will Still the right man for Sunderland
Still has always seemed like a gamble for Sunderland.
He’s inexperienced and now he’s going through what seems like his first rough patch with Reims, and right at the end of the season too.
Still and Reims don’t have enough time to react to this dip in form and so it sends him and his club into the summer in a bit of disregard.
Especially so with Still’s future so up in the air right now.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Sunderland hierarchy make of this dip in form.
Recent reports stated that Still very much remains in the picture to become the next Sunderland manager, but the compensation fee remains the key sticking point here.
Still still seems like a big and expensive risk for Sunderland, who may feel more comfortable taking a safer option like Paul Heckingbottom.