Sunderland: Kristjaan Speakman reveals ongoing impact of Mick Beale appointment | OneFootball

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has discussed Mick Beale's short time at the club.

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman insists he doesn’t regret Mick Beale’s appointment at the Stadium of Light and revealed some of the impacts of his tenure are still being felt, though he acknowledged they should’ve taken the fans' feelings into consideration.

The Black Cats sit top of the Championship under Regis Le Bris right now, with the Frenchman having made an immediate impact since his summer arrival.

That’s a significant improvement on the previous campaign, which petered out for Sunderland following the surprising decision to replace Tony Mowbray with Beale.

Sunderland hierarchy came under pressure for Mick Beale decision

Mowbray was a popular figure on Wearside, so it came as a shock when he lost his job with the side ninth and just three points away from the play-offs.

They turned to Beale, and it didn’t work out, with the ex-Rangers chief not someone the fans wanted, and he was ultimately sacked just 12 games into a two-and-a-half year contract.

Mike Dodds would oversee the remainder of the season, which ended in real disappointment for Sunderland, as they finished 16th, some 17 points away from sixth-placed Norwich City.

So, there was a lot of anger towards Speakman and owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, and the sporting director opened up on the call to bring Beale in when speaking to the Second Tier podcast.

He said: “At the time we made what we felt was the right decision, to change the coach, to try to improve some areas that we needed to improve.

“One of the reasons we’ve managed to navigate from where we were in League One to where we are today is because we’ve always been very reflective, we’re always trying to learn.

“We have some really, really tough conversations internally, which keeps everyone accountable, and makes sure we keep trying to make improvements.

“There are so many variables that go into a coach change, and the success of a coach, and some things went against us on that change (Beale). I don’t believe we should go back and say we shouldn’t have done it, as we made the decision for the right reasons, but the outcome wasn’t the outcome that we wanted it to be.”

Interestingly, Speakman would praise Beale for some of his methods, but he admitted that getting someone who the fans believed in should’ve been given more weight.

He said: “There were some really good things that happened behind the scenes, and there were things that happened behind that coach’s tenure that we’re still doing today. But, ultimately, we weren’t able to get the results on the pitch, and an important thing, we didn’t get a connection between our fan base and our coach on that occasion, for various reasons.

“You have to accept that, you have to reflect, and you have to be tough on yourself to say maybe we overlooked that element, that we didn’t consider that piece enough.

“As part of the recruitment process, I had this matrix around the profile and credentials that I was really, really proud of, but I looked back afterwards and something that I thought was good, we needed to scrap that, we needed to change it, and develop and evolve it - and we did that.

“We needed some time after that coach to be able to review and reflect, and what we didn’t want to do was make wholesale changes, so we made the decision to run with our assistant coach at the time, who we have got a lot of admiration for, and it gave us the chance to reflect, breath and make better decisions moving forward.”

Sunderland are making positive strides after bold Regis Le Bris move

There were a lot of unhappy Sunderland fans in the summer as the process of appointing a new manager dragged on and on.

But, to their credit, the hierarchy didn’t panic, and the early signs suggest they made the right call in bringing in Le Bris.

He has quickly commanded the respect of the players, and the fans are delighted with how the side are playing in the opening months of the season.

Of course, there’s a long way to go, but Sunderland