BBC pundit Marco Gabbiadini has commented on the possibility of Sunderland poaching a manager who’s currently working in Saudi Arabia.
Sunderland remain on the lookout for their next manager, with new names coming into the reckoning, and old ones seemingly leaving it.
A new name on the Black Cats’ radar is Danish coach Bo Svensson who left German outfit Mainz last year, whilst the likes of Danny Rohl at Sheffield Wednesday appear to be steadily moving out of the running for the Sunderland job.
And fans continue to throw new names into the ring; former Swansea City and Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper remains a favoured candidate among supporters, though there’s no recent suggestions that he’s a contender for the job.
Now though, one fan has suggested a new name towards former Sunderland striker and BBC pundit Gabbiadini.
Marco Gabbiadini comments on Slaven Bilic to Sunderland
Bilic, 55, is currently manager of Saudi Pro League side Al-Fateh where he’s been since July 2023.
The Croatian boss has won 12 of his 33 games in charge and currently finds his side sitting in 7th place of the Saudi Pro League table after the opening 31 games of this current campaign.
Formerly manager of the likes of West Ham, West Brom, Watford, and the Croatian national team, Bilic won promotion from the Championship with the Baggies in 2020.
Speaking on Total Sport, one Sunderland fan put the possibility of Sunderland poaching Bilic from Al-Fateh to Gabbiadini, who replied:
“We saw with Jordan Henderson; money isn’t always everything. If you’re somewhere where you’re not happy, you might want to leave. But are we going to outbargain that part of the world? Probably not.”
Former Sunderland academy man Henderson left Liverpool to move to Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq, but is now back in Europe with Ajax.
Gabbiadini added:
“We’re linked to everybody… I haven’t got a clue. We just have to wait and see, and have to get behind him. That for me is the biggest message. Whoever comes in, not everyone’s going to be happy, you can never get everyone happy. It’s like politics, isn’t it. But once he gets there. make sure we get behind them.”
How much would Slaven Bilic cost Sunderland to hire
Bilic’s current contract with Al-Fateh runs until 2025. But the former West Ham and Everton defender was linked with the Republic of Ireland job earlier this year; a job which he was apparently open to.
It was claimed in Irish media that Bilic would’ve been open to leaving Saudi Arabia, and that he was open to a new, long-term project, which is what Sunderland certainly is, and also that he would’ve been open to a salary of around £500,000 per year.
So that salary alone may put Bilic out of Sunderland’s reach, should they be interested, which doesn’t seem likely.
There’s also no reports of his current wages in Saudi Arabia or the compensation that would be needed to hire him right now.
But Bilic is someone who’s been in football for a long time, and someone who also received a £12.5million pay-out from former club Al-Ittihad in 2020, so like Gabbiadini says, money may not be an issue for Bilic.
Reports linking him with the Ireland job were later played down. But should Bilic be interested in a new project and a return to England, Sunderland would surely be an attractive job.
He’s got promotion experience in the second tier and overall experience, which is something a lot of the current contenders don’t have.
He may not be the glamorous Will Still or Rohl-type appointment, but a potentially safe one in terms of getting out of the Championship, but the chances of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus looking at bringing in Bilic seem slim-to-none.
And like Gabbiadini says, whoever comes in, not everyone will be happy. But the Michael Beale tenure showed us that an unpopular manager is ultimately an unsuccessful one.
