"I've been hearing" - Pundit reacts to "unhealthy situation" at Sunderland AFC amid Bo Svensson talk | OneFootball

Appointing a head coach is still very much on the agenda for Sunderland, and former Mainz manager Bo Svensson is one of the names that is said to be on the club's shortlist.

Reports from journalist Alan Nixon said that the Danish coach has emerged as a surprise candidate for the Black Cats head coach role.

The former Mainz boss was with the German side for nearly three years, before parting ways with the club in November 2023.

Also in contention for the vacant position are former Stade Reims boss Will Still, and former Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom.

Bayern Munich under-19s coach Rene Maric is also reported to be a contender, but Bayern are intent on keeping him, as per Tageszeitung.

With the start of the summer transfer window fast approaching, the Black Cats need to get a move on, and football pundit Carlton Palmer has some concerns with the club's search.

Carlton Palmer on Bo Svensson and Sunderland's head coach search

The former England international believes that the way that the club are going about their pursuit of filling this gaping vacancy, and the parameters in which they are setting for candidates, is one that won't work well for them.

"Sunderland are still yet to appoint a manager, and the latest name to be linked to the job is Svensson," said Palmer. "This would be a huge gamble for them.

"What I can't get my head around is that they haven't made an appointment yet. I know that they are very keen on the former Reims boss, Still. They had talks before, but they broke down.

"He's now out of work, and I thought that might have accelerated quickly for him to get the job. But what's coming out from Sunderland that I've been hearing is that with the way they want to run their ship, any manager worth their salt is not going to do that.

"The way that it works at Sunderland is that you can seemingly only take one member of staff with you. That would be a huge problem for me because then you have the rest of the staff that were there before. Those people are close to those up top, so they will be reporting back to the people up top."

Nixon did report that the club are now willing to let the new head coach bring their staff with them, rather than working with just the existing group of coaches.

"It's an unhealthy situation, and the way that they want to work, predominantly with young players, getting them for small fees, developing them, and then getting big fees for them; that's great as a model, but, if you want to be successful as a football club, then you have to balance that out with senior players.

"It may end up that they end up appointing someone like a Svensson who needs to be in work, who will go along and work in that kind of situation.

"It'd definitely be a risk, but that's the type of manager that they're going to have because any manager worth their salt, like a Röhl, who would cost a lot of money, would want to bring his backroom staff and wouldn't work under those sorts of conditions.

"So it would only be someone who is very young, or is desperate for work. It's their right to run their ship the way that they want it run, but you've got to have a balance.

"At some point, your talented young players, who have seen what has happened, will want to move on because they also want to be successful."

Sunderland are slowly starting to learn the errors of their ways

The higher-ups at the Stadium of Light have been quite forthright and adamant about the way that things are going to be done under the current regime. But, in recent weeks and months, they have begun to get off their high horse and look at things through a wider lense.

Their pursuit of only young talent in the striker position last season, caused major issues with their recruitment, leading to them having no proper number nine for the season. Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has said that they will broaden their search this summer.

A similar thing has happened with their coaching search. Initially, they wanted the candidates to come in and work with the already assembled backroom staff, or just to bring one of their members of staff with them. Now they seem to be more open to letting head coaches bring their own people with them.

These changes in attitudes have to be spurred on by the poor season that they just had. They finished 16th in the league, and never really looked like a consistent threat to make the top six, as they had done in the prior season, throughout the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.

Now that they are budging on their principles a bit, better results could follow. Or things will stay as they are, and they may double down on their originally held ideology.