49-year-old took interest in Sunderland vacancy | OneFootball

Marek Papszun was keen on speaking to Sunderland about taking over as manager, according to a report from TEAMtalk.

He may have thought he had a great opportunity yesterday, with Michael Beale being dismissed following a disappointing time at the helm.

Quite a few of the Black Cats' recent managers have come from these shores, with Beale, Tony Mowbray, Alex Neil, Lee Johnson and Jack Ross all coming from the UK.

However, the Wearside outfit could have expanded their search to give themselves a larger pool of managers to choose from.

Instead of doing this though, the club have decided to give Mike Dodds the opportunity to take the club forward for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign.

Although some people will see this as the board writing the season off, Dodds did a good job following his short caretaker spell earlier this season when Mowbray departed.

Securing wins against the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United, Dodds would have been delighted with that and potentially hopeful about getting the job on a full-time basis at some point.

His opportunity to impress has come now, with the 37-year-old having the rest of the season to prove to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman that he can take the team forward for the long term.

The Black Cats are currently sitting outside of the play-off zone, but there's still a chance they can climb into the top six and this will be Dodds' main goal.

Marek Papszun was interested in the Sunderland job

Papszun has spent his managerial career in his home nation of Poland, most recently being in charge of Rakow Czestochowa.

At the end of last term, he led them to their first ever Ekstraklasa title, but has since become a free agent and has reportedly been approached by UK and Saudi-based clubs.

The 49-year-old was thought to be keen on speaking to the Black Cats about their vacancy but he may not have the chance to do that in the short term, although that opportunity could pop up again at the end of the season.

Whether the Wearside club will take an interest in him remains to be seen, but he was thought to be on their radar.

The Black Cats took the wrong decision in the first place to appoint Beale, who was unable to connect with the fanbase.

However, they probably made the right call to dismiss him fairly quickly considering the fact he failed to connect with the supporters and a bad atmosphere was created because of that.

Dodds being installed for the remainder of the season is probably a good thing too, because he managed to get some decent results after his last caretaker spell.

The board may want to take a closer look at him to assess whether he would be a good permanent appointment.