A major Sunderland claim has been made regarding their attempts to appoint a new manager earlier this month…
What’s the talk?
According to Alan Nixon in The Sun, the Black Cats failed to land a number of their managerial targets due to the contracts they put on the table.
The report claims that Roy Keane turned down their offer as they were only willing to give him a deal until the end of the season. They offered the same terms to out-of-work managers Neil Warnock and Grant McCann before eventually appointing ex-Preston coach Alex Neil.
Fuming
Sunderland fans will surely be fuming with this news for several reasons.
Firstly, Keane turning down the club suggests that he was the first-choice option for the job originally. This means that Kristjaan Speakman failed to land the man he wanted for the role and was then forced to settle for Neil, although they may have still been weighing up who their preferred target was and had deals on the table for several men at the same time.
Either way, the way Sunderland went about replacing Lee Johnson will not inspire confidence. They were either unable to land the manager they wanted or they had no idea who they wanted and were ultimately left to settle for Neil after the other candidates refused a short-term contract.
This will surely leave fans livid as it suggests that they did not have a clear succession plan in place following the exit of the former Bristol City head coach. Sunderland played two games between his sacking and Neil’s arrival and lost both of the games against Cheltenham and Doncaster, highlighting the impact their lack of speed in the process has potentially had on their season.
Supporters will also be angry because the club were only willing to offer their targets a short-term deal. This could have been because of the financial restrictions that their current ownership situation has placed on them, with journalist Craig Hope recently revealing that Madrox’s involvement is limiting how much they can spend.
They will not be pleased if Madrox have caused them to miss out on a key appointment, although it remains to be seen whether or not this was the main factor behind the club’s decision to offer a short term deal.
The mood amongst the fans has not been helped by Neil picking up one point from his first two League One matches in charge of the Black Cats. Hopefully, he will be able to turn things around and enjoy a successful end to the campaign, but the supporters will certainly be frustrated with this claim until that happens.
AND in other news, Parky had huge howler over “important” gem whose value has soared 138% since SAFC exit…