Sunderland need Sam to ‘revolutionise’ club – Quinn

Mark Holmes
Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce: Main contenders for Sunderland job

Sean Dyche and Sam Allardyce: Main contenders for Sunderland job

Sunderland need a manager to “change and revolutionise” everything at the club – and Sam Allardyce is the man to do it, says Niall Quinn.

Allardyce is said to be Sunderland’s first choice to take over from Dick Advocaat at the Stadium of Light, but the 60-year-old is apparently unsure about taking on the challenge.

Former Sunderland striker and chairman Quinn, however, believes Allardyce – or former USA coach Bob Bradley, who has also been linked – is exactly the sort of manager the club needs.

“I think the same old, same old isn’t going to work,” Quinn told Sun FM. “I think you need a manager to really change and revolutionise everything there. Big Sam might be radical in as much as he would totally change and revolutionise everything.

“Or if it was someone like Bob Bradley from America who hasn’t been in the Premier League before, he might do things different and that would get Sunderland going.”

Burnley’s Sean Dyche is reported to be Sunderland’s second choice after Allardyce, but he too is ‘reluctant’ to take the job, according to The Guardian.

Former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson is interested but is ‘not regarded as a serious contender’ by Ellis Short, the newspaper adds, while David Moyes plans to stay in Spain with Real Sociedad.

Gus Poyet has also backed Allardyce as the ideal appointment for Sunderland but has warned the club that sacked him earlier this year that their problems run deeper than the manager.

“I think it is clear now that it is not the manager,” Poyet said. “Sometimes when a team is not working you change the manager and things go well and you can say ‘Good decision’, but when it happens four or five times, come on, be realistic.

“I don’t think you can blame Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet and Dick Advocaat. There is something that is not working there.”