Sunderland have now suffered yet another blow in their pursuit of Will Still.
Sunderland have now passed the 100 day mark without a permanent manager, having sacked Michael Beale back in February.
The Black Cats had a long list of names on their shortlist at the end of the season, but have been forced to knock each one off one by one.
Danny Rohl has signed a new contract at Sheffield Wednesday, Bo Svensson is returning to the Bundesliga and Rene Maric is set to become Vincent Kompany’s assistant at Bayern Munich.
That only leaves Will Still, who has been a target at Sunderland since Tony Mowbray left the club before Christmas.
However, the Black Cats don’t seem to be any closer to appointing the 31-year-old, while it was believed they were ‘increasingly unlikely‘ to bring him in after he held talks over the Norwich City vacancy last week.
It was said that Still was still in the running for the Sunderland job though and they were handed a boost when it was reported that the Canaries were poised to appoint Johannes Hoff Thorup as their head coach.
Fabrizio Romano then reported that Still had changed agencies and was still on the hunt for a ‘new project’, while it now looks like Sunderland will face even more competition after he was linked with Lens.
Will Still ‘interested’ in Ligue 1 return
Journalist Sacha Tavolieri wrote on X: “As explained by @lequipe , the Artesian club has included the name of Will Still in its short list (which includes Zoumana Camara) to replace Franck Haise. The Belgian coach is interested in the project.”
Both reports from Romano and Tavolieri came yesterday and it does feel like a bit of a weird coincidence that his name is suddenly being pushed out there after so much uncertainty.
If Still has found a new agency then it sounds like they are trying their best to get his name out and find him a new club – whether that be Sunderland or not.
Should Sunderland be worried?
Given that the coach chose to leave France and appears to have made it quite clear that he wants to manage in England, it would be very surprising if he were to now return to Ligue 1.
While Lens are a bigger club than Reims, it is hardly the step in the right direction that he would have envisioned.
Sunderland fans are just being paranoid though. Still is unemployed and was always going to be linked with a number of clubs, but that doesn’t mean he definitely isn’t coming to Wearside.