Sunderland may have just been handed a major boost in pursuit of their next manager.
Sunderland are still on the lookout for their next manager, almost three months after the club sacked Michael Beale after just 12 games in charge.
It’s suggested that the Black Cats are perhaps still reeling from the Beale saga and taking time to further reflect on that horror tenure and figure out their next best head coach.
Will Still continues to be linked with Sunderland following his sudden Reims exit at the start of May, though little has been said about the 31-year-old coach in the last week or so.
Other names continue to be thrown into the ring, with Paul Heckingbottom’s name doing the rounds once again, whilst Rene Maric and Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl are starting to look like distant candidates.
Another name linked recently is Bo Svensson; the former Mainz boss is out of work but was recently linked with the Red Bull Salzburg job.
Red Bull Salzburg hire new manager
17-time Austrian Bundesliga winners Red Bull Salzburg had former Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber in charge from July 2023 through to April 2024.
They placed an interim boss in charge and were strongly linked with Svensson, who was quite widely tipped to become the club’s next head coach.
But Salzburg have now hired Pepijn Lijnders as their new boss; Jurgen Klopp’s no.2 at Liverpool leaves Anfield ahead of Klopps’s summer exit to take on just his second job as a manager.
So for Sunderland, Salzburg hiring Lijnders may leave Svensson clear to head to Wearside this summer, unless any other major European teams come in for the Danish coach.
Who is the front-runner to become next Sunderland manager
Right now, there seems to be some strong candidates and some not so strong candidates for the Sunderland job.
Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been backed to hire a younger and fresher manager this summer, apparently determined not to go down the tried and tested route despite the club’s previous success under Tony Mowbray.
So that might make the likes of Heckingbottom an outside candidate. Still then certainly seems to be a leading candidate, being a long-term target of Sunderland’s and now a free agent, whilst Svensson looks like a dark horse.
He may well have been waiting on the Salzburg job but now that he’s missed out, he might turn his attentions elsewhere, with Sunderland no doubt liking the fact that he’s slightly more experienced than Still and also a free agent.
Whoever comes in though, Louis-Dreyfus and Sunderland really need to press on with the appointment, with fans starting to get slightly anxious about the wait for a new manager.