Sunderland are still looking for a new management after Michael Beale was fired last month, with Republic of Ireland and Manchester United great Roy Keane among the favourites for the post.
Beale, the former Rangers manager, won four of his 12 games before losing his position at the Stadium of Light and being replaced by Mike Dodds as caretaker manager until the end of the season.
Will Still is the 6/4 favourite to become the Black Cats’ next permanent manager, according to gambling.com. In a recent interview, Still stated unequivocally that he wants to manage in England and would be delighted to accept a position in the Championship with an ambitious club.
According to The Manchester Evening News, Keane is rated at 2/1 to return as Sunderland manager, despite not having managed in his own right since 2011.
Keane, a former Sunderland manager, is often linked with a return to the Stadium of Light. He was discussed at Beale’s appointment in December, and was the frontrunner for the Sunderland post after Lee Johnson was fired in 2022, but a deal fell through, and Alex Neil was appointed.
Sunderland owner Kyril-Louis Dreyfus, however, insists that 2022 link was nonsense. “The Roy Keane potential with Sunderland played out much more in the media than it really did in conversations that we had in the club,” he said.
Juan Sartori, Sunderland’s co-owner, indicated that while having Roy Keane on board might have brought greater attention to the team’s home field, he was not the ideal person for the post. Sartori went on to say: “I think Roy Keane would have been fun, definitely good for the [Sunderland ‘Til I Die] Netflix series, but maybe we had a third season of disastrous finishing.”
Scott Parker has a 5/2 chance of being the next man through the door at the Stadium of Light. Given Parker’s strong track record at Fulham and Bournemouth, he may be viewed as one of the more prudent selections the Sunderland management could make.
Steve Cooper (4/1) is another manager with a promotion on his CV – and his was more impressive than most. Nottingham Forest were in danger of going down to League One when he took charge. By the end of the same season, they were celebrating a place in the Premier League.
Dodds’ odds, meanwhile, have drifted from 12/1 to 25/1. His caretaker spell in charge has so far resulted in two successive defeats.
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