One man linked with the Sunderland job has admitted that he wouldn’t want Mike Dodds or Michael Proctor on his backroom staff if he joined the club.
Sunderland are only a matter of days away from their final match against Sheffield Wednesday, bringing an end to a turbulent season.
Fans have been desperate for the summer to arrive so a new manager can be brought in, but it is so far unclear who will be replacing Mike Dodds at the helm.
The 37-year-old was named interim head coach following Michael Beale’s sacking in February, but has so far only managed two wins in the Championship.
Dodds is expected to continue his role as a coach on Wearside beyond this summer, while the Black Cats are expected to bring in a new manager in the ‘immediate aftermath’ of this weekend’s game.
Rene Maric, Paul Heckingbottom and Danny Rohl seem two names high on the club’s list of targets, however one new name that has been thrown into the hat is Jermain Defoe.
The former Sunderland striker has come out and revealed that he has had informal ‘discussions’ with the club, while admitting that he would be ‘interested’ in taking the job this summer.
Defoe retired from professional football when he left Sunderland for a second time in 2022, and is now the current U18s coach at Tottenham Hotspur.
Jermain Defoe would want his ‘own people’
While it is extremely unlikely that the 41-year-old will return to the Stadium of Light, he has now spoken about what his plans would be for his potential backroom staff if he was appointed.
When asked by the Sunderland Echo if he would work with Dodds and Proctor, Defoe said: “I’d like to bring my own people in, to be honest.
“What you need to understand is I’ve got people around me now who I’ve worked with and who understand how I’d want to play and how I’d want it to look.
“Let’s be honest, when it’s your first job, I think you need experience around you. The people I’m talking about are experienced coaches and they’ve played at the top level and they’ve managed at the top level and they’ve coached at the top level. If it was going to happen for me, I think I’d want to have my people with me that I trust and my people that understand how I want to play.”
Who will be here and who will be gone this summer?
This could well be the case for many coaches that we are targeting – where Mike Dodds and Michael Proctor are urged to leave the club.
It would be a real shame though, given all the effort and passion Dodds has put into this club, even if it hasn’t worked out for him taking the reins.
The players clearly love him and I think he could continue to do a much better job working under our new head coach, but that will all depend on what they want.
As for Defoe, I think we can take his comments with a pinch of salt, because while he was a brilliant player, I think most fans would be completely underwhelmed if he was to be named as Dodds’ successor.
