Sunderland face a huge battle if they want to appoint one ‘important’ manager target.
Sunderland are still waiting to appoint a new manager, four months after sacking Michael Beale.
Their list of targets seems to be getting shorter and shorter after missing out on the likes of Danny Rohl and Bo Svensson, while their reported interest in Raphael Wicky never materialised.
One man they have been linked with for a while now is Rene Maric, who is the current U19s coach at Bayern Munich.
While Will Still and Pascal Jansen have been the main talking points in recent days, Maric still hasn’t disappeared from rumour mill.
However, Vincent Kompany’s arrival at Bayern Munich is said to have increased the chances of Maric staying in Germany.
It was previously reported that the 31-year-old could join Kompany’s coaching staff with the senior team, though that is yet to be confirmed.
Bayern Munich ‘desperately’ want to keep Rene Maric
With Sunderland still searching for a manager, it appears the Bayern boss is now doing everything he can to ensure that Maric doesn’t leave for Wearside.
According to BILD (as perFCB Inside), Maric is ‘so important’ to Kompany, with his friend and colleague putting in a good word for him before he got the job at the Allianz Arena.
The report claims that the former Burnley manager is hoping to prevent Maric from leaving and has ‘clearly signalled’ to Bayern that he ‘desperately’ wants to keep the young coach at the club.
Rene Maric may be tempted by the opportunity to become a head coach, but working under one of his close friends for one of the biggest clubs in the world could also be intriguing enough to stick around for a season.
Is Rene Maric still on Sunderland’s radar?
It does seem incredibly unlikely that the Black Cats would be able to lure Maric in at this point, but he also doesn’t seem to be their first choice anyway.
With Pascal Jansen’s name now being thrown about, every other name seems to have been forgotten about by Sunderland fans.
The 51-year-old definitely seems like a very attractive proposition for Sunderland, but supporters already know now to get too excited about potential appointments.
The club seem to have let fans down every time a decent name has been thrown into the hat, so it would be very surprising if this one was any different.