Next Sunderland Manager: Four long-term replacements for Michael Beale

Sunderland have sacked Michael Beale and placed Mike Dodds in charge on an interim basis until the end of the season.
As such, EFL pundit Gab Sutton has looked ahead to the future and picked out four long-term options to become the next Sunderland Head Coach.
1. Will Still
One of the reasons Sunderland went for Mick Beale to fill the previous vacancy is that they did not want to pay the required compensation for Will Still, to poach the 31-year-old from Reims.
This approach landed the Black Cats with what turned out to be the wrong person, setting their season and overall progress back, and leaving them with compensation to pay for unwanted reasons.
With the youth-oriented model Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman oversees, the club will feel they have the potential to earn nine-figures in player sales across the next five years, given the elite, international potential that already exists in the squad.
Of course, on-field success is the priority, but if we look at the financial aspect in isolation, the right coach could be the difference between developing these prospects to the next level and possibly recouping those nine figures, and not.
As such, why not pay the compensation fee required for whoever the club sees as the right person?
Having began his coaching journey as young as 21, Still is ahead of ex-players who spend their 20s and early 30s playing, and he’s already become the youngest manager in the top five European leagues, overseeing a 17-game unbeaten streak last season.
2. Steve Cooper
Steve Cooper would represent a compromise from the club on their model.
Beale’s appointment previously suggests Speakman wants somebody with a strong coaching background, with so much of the job entailing improving individuals.
Cooper has that, having coached England Under-17s to World Cup success in 2017, but he also has the experience in senior football that fans want.
The 44-year-old has led Swansea to successive Play-Off campaigns at this level, and taken Nottingham Forest up via that route after inheriting a team that had taken four points from the first eight, as well as keeping them up in their first season in the Premier League.
The Welshman has a thirst for developing young players, but he also knows how to deliver results, and could help Sunderland find the balance that has eluded them under this regime.
Cooper would also come with more authority in the operational side, and part of the process for getting him in would be an agreement from the club to recruit two or three experienced heads to ensure a touch more efficiency.
3. Paul Heckingbottom
Paul Heckingbottom won promotion from the Championship last season with Sheffield United, after leading them into the Play-Offs the previous year.
Granted, that Blades side, inserted into the 2023-24 iteration of the second tier, would probably be in the mix for the Play-Offs with West Brom and Hull.
Heckingbottom nurtured the likes of Sander Berge and Illiman Ndiaye at Bramall Lane, but he did his best developmental work, arguably, at Barnsley, where he won a Football League Trophy and League One promotion double in 2015-16, before leading them to comfortable Championship safety the following season with a youthful side.
The head coach is a stickler for strong, ground coffee in the morning and, more importantly, discipline, tight timekeeping, and an understanding for the players of where they stand with him.
After the chaos of Beale, a firm hand could be what this group needs.
Having taken huge credit in his career for the development of Conor Hourihane, Alfie Mawson, Sam Winnall, James Bree, Harvey Barnes, Oli McBurnie, Ryan Kent, Adam Armstrong, Ben Pearson, Joe Rothwell, Ivan Toney, Josh Brownhill, Morgan Gibbs-White, Tommy Doyle, James McAtee, Ndiaye and Berge, Heckingbottom has shown his way can have a positive effect on young people.
Heckingbottom is flexible in terms of formation, too, favouring a back-four at Barnsley and Leeds, but having the common sense at Sheffield United to revert to the back-three, which is what the team was built for.
4. Pep Lijnders
A long-term assistant of Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool, Pep Lijnders is unsurprisingly a man in demand as he, like the German, is set to leave Anfield this summer.
Klopp is expected to have a sabbatical, so this is the perfect window for Lijnders to test himself as a number one.
His methodology revolves around high-intensity work against the ball, and aggressive pressing from the front, which could work nicely with a young squad.
The likes of Jack Clarke, Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil and Trai Hume have an excellent work ethic, while the absence of an experienced defender or seasoned midfielder is less of a problem for Lijnders, given that his strategy will prioritize fresh legs, mobility and exuberance.
If Sunderland could attract Lijnders, getting him in might be seen as a coup – and with Mike Dodds set to take charge until the end of the season, the timing would work out smoothly.
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