Will Still’s reasons for turning down Sunderland AFC job emerge

Will Still’s name had been linked to the vacant Sunderland head coach role for a long, long time, but the young English boss has gone in a different direction.

The former Stade Reims manager was convinced to join fellow French side RC Lens less than two months after leaving Reims via mutual consent.

His name was first chucked into the Sunderland hat when Tony Mowbray lost his job in December. They ultimately went with former QPR and Rangers boss Michael Beale instead. How wrong they were proven to be.

He lasted just over 60 days before getting canned too, making it nearly four months now since there was a permanent leader at the head of the Black Cats squad.

A deal had seemingly been agreed between Still and Sunderland for him to become their next manager, but the 31-year-old veered back towards the continent instead. New reasons as to why have now been revealed.

Will Still’s reasons for turning down Sunderland job

The young coach is believed to have had some concerns over the club’s ambition and the structure of the backroom staff that they would have wanted him to work with, according to the Northern Echo.

They added that the club believe a financially better offer from Lens and the chance to work in the upper echelons of the French first division was what made up the dangling carrot that Still decided to take.

Previous reports from northeast reported Craig Hope suggest that it was the opportunity to take charge of a team that will play European football that was a decisive factor in the 31-year-old’s decision.

The saga around who will become the next Sunderland head coach has played out for an embarrassingly long amount of time for those at the top of the club. What makes it look even worse for them – for Kristjaan Speakman in particular – is that there are suggestions that reservations about working with the sporting director have made some candidates unsure.

His, and the club’s, stance on how they want things to be is very rigid. They control the transfers, and the managers have little say, which is what caused such frustration for Mowbray and Alex Neil, and their eventual departures.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman want the next head coach to come in and work with their backroom staff, or just be able to bring one assistant with him, as opposed to bringing all their own people, which is something that would have caused an issue if they’d gone all in for Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Röhl or Paul Heckinbottom, according to journalist Alan Nixon.