Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman may have foresaw the club’s struggles to hire a manager.
Sunderland have now been without a permanent manager in place for more than four months.
Michael Beale was sacked from his position after just 12 games on February 19th, with the Black Cats then going on to win just twice under interim boss Mike Dodds.
Since the end of the season, Sunderland have been linked with a number of potential new managers, but the club remains without one.
Will Still looked poised to become the next Sunderland manager; he pulled out of the running and soon took the RC Lens job.
Liam Rosenior then looked like the next-best manager available to Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman, but Rosenior would also pull out of the race.
The Sunderland first-team returns for pre-season training in less than two weeks and the club doesn’t even have a front-runner to become the next manager, or at least not one who’s known in the media.
Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman, the latter in particular, are coming under increasing scrutiny for the club’s ongoing manager fiasco.
But comments from Speakman in March of this year may well have foretold what’s happening now.
Kristjaan Speakman set Sunderland up for failure in manager hunt
Sunderland held a Supporters’ Collective Meeting in March, shortly after the exit of Beale at the Stadium of Light.
The club, particularly Speakman, discussed an array of topics, with the head coach search process a key topic.
Per the notes of the meeting, Speakman ‘in response to a question on the Head Coach appointment process’, went on to highlight ‘the importance of the process, but referenced that it does not
guarantee the right outcome’.
Kristjaan Speakman comments paved way for Sunderland manager fiasco
When the above comments came to light, it became clear that Sunderland had a plan, and a search process, but that they weren’t completely confident with it.
Speakman suggesting that the club’s search process won’t necessarily bring in the right head coach gave an air of uncertainty; not only among fans, but likely among potential managerial candidates too.
Managers and coaches linked with Sunderland will certainly have done their homework when being linked with the club, and they would surely have gotten a sense of the instability that’s unfolded this summer.
Still pulling out of the race due to concerns about the resources and the make up of the staff, and then Rosenior pulling out of the running to pursue a Burnley job which he doesn’t seem likely to get, says a lot about how unattractive a job Sunderland is right now.
And it all boils down to the ‘vision’. It’s a vision that’s earned praise in the past, and still warrants some praise with Sunderland now boasting a lot of very valuable player assets.
But there’s no longer-term in place, or so it seems. Sunderland crumbled on the pitch last season and at the rate of matters this summer, they’ll struggle again next season.
It appears that Speakman and co were never very confident going into this summer, and now their confidence in hiring a good head coach must be, and arguably should be, at absolute zero.