One Premier League icon has revealed that he had an interview for the Sunderland vacancy in 2022.
Sunderland had four different managers during their four-year stint in League One, with Jack Ross, Phil Parkinson and Lee Johnson all failing miserably.
The latter’s sacking proved to be a real turning point for the Black Cats, and supporters ended up thanking Bolton Wanderers just a day earlier.
The 6-0 hammering was only their second defeat in 14 games and sacking Johnson certainly seemed like a risk, but one that needed to be taken.
As a result, Sunderland spent the next two weeks searching for a replacement who would be able to win them promotion in just a matter of months.
The Wearside outfit interviewed a number of candidates, with Roy Keane the name that stood out the most to supporters.
Eventually they made the underwhelming appoint of Alex Neil, but the 42-year-old proved to be the man to win them the play-offs in an unlikely turn of events.
Sunderland certainly won’t have any regrets about Neil’s arrival despite his short stay, but one coach has admitted to previously being convinced that he would be appointed as Johnson’s successor.
John Terry is yet to move into management, but previously spent three years as Aston Villa’s assistant manager, helping them win promotion to the Premier League. He then followed Dean Smith to Leicester in April 2023, where they were relegated.
He is currently working as an Academy coach for Chelsea, where he previously won five league titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, the Champions League and the Europa League.
John Terry was a candidate to replace Lee Johnson
Terry has now admitted that he had a ‘really good interview’ to replace Johnson back in 2022.
Speaking on the Up Front with Simon Jordan podcast, Terry said: “I had a really, really good interview with Sunderland. They had just sacked Lee Johnson and they were sitting third in the table in League One.
“I’d spent three weeks looking at the team and the players, I knew everyone.
“I had a really good meeting and came away thinking ‘oh my god, that’s mine’. I got on really well with the sporting directors and all of that.
“Got a message, ‘went really well just a little bit inexperienced’. Same with another club, just no experience.”
Should we look at coaches with no experience?
Our past couple of appointments have shown that we were desperate for managers with plenty of experience in the EFL, with both Tony Mowbray and Alex Neil having plenty of success under their belt before their arrivals.
But our ‘model’ and recent links to the likes of Danny Rohl and Will Still suggest things are different now, and perhaps we are willing to take risks on new managers, like Ipswich did with Kieran McKenna.
I think it could definitely be a risk worth taking, because if clubs didn’t trust in managers who had only ever coached before, then Ipswich probably wouldn’t be at the top of the Championship and Sheffield Wednesday may have already been relegated.
I’m not saying John Terry is the answer and he certainly wasn’t when we were in League One, but I would like to think our criteria has changed dramatically now.