Sunderland have been urged to find ‘their own version’ of a ‘phenomenal’ Championship manager.
It has been over two months since Mike Dodds was named Sunderland’s interim manager, with the club confirming they would appoint a permanent successor in the summer.
With this season written off for a while now, the club’s focus will now be making the right appointment and bringing in a coach who can look to take Sunderland back to the Premier League.
The Black Cats were slammed when they brought Michael Beale in and have since been on a huge decline, ruining all the progress they had made underKyril Louis-Dreyfus.
The club are coming under mounting pressure to get their manager hunt right, and with the huge period they will have had to find their new head coach, there is really no excuse.
Sunderland’s search has all been on the down-low though and, other than a few names, we are no closer to knowing who their number one target is.
Sunderland need a Kieran McKenna 2.0
Former Sunderland striker Ally McCoist has offered his former side some advice and has urged them to find their own Kieran McKenna.
The 37-year-old had only spent time with Tottenham and Manchester United’s U18 teams before joining Ipswich Town in 2021.
He went onto win automatic promotion to the Championship and could now take the Tractor Boys back to the Premier League for the first time in 22 years, as they sit third in the league table.
Speaking to Football League World, McCoist said: ““Things clearly didn’t work out with Michael Beale and I think Sunderland need their own version of Kieran McKenna at Ipswich – he’s done a phenomenal job there.
“I look at him and wonder whether there’s any other young coaches who could go into Sunderland and galvanise the club.
“Someone needs to take the club forward because the potential there is incredible.
“They need a good, young, hungry coach who has his own ideas and will be supported by the board.
“The fans are crying out for someone to come in that they can get behind, who can take them to the next level, because they’re stuck in the mud at the moment.
“The atmosphere at Sunderland is incredible.
“I went to the FA Cup game against Newcastle earlier this season and the atmosphere was the best I’ve seen outside of the Old Firm, that is how good it was.”
There is one obvious choice for Sunderland now
Kieran McKenna is exactly what Sunderland need, but unfortunately he is never going to make the step down (sigh) to Wearside now.
McKenna is young, has picked up his coaching experience with some of the biggest clubs in the world, has worked with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Michael Carrick and is lighting the Championship up with his first job in management.
There is one name who springs to mind when you try to think of similarities to McKenna and that is Danny Rohl.
The German has spent time with some of the best players and coaches in the world, and if it wasn’t for McKenna, he could well earn himself the Manager of the Year award for his spell with Sheffield Wednesday.
While the likes of Will Still and Steve Cooper are some tempting names, Rohl seems like the perfect man for the job and one that would tick all the boxes of Sunderland’s criteria.
