'Quite incredible' Ex-Sunderland star latest to hammer board's manager position with criticism

Ex-Sunderland loan man Alan Hutton has described the club’s ongoing manager fiasco as “quite incredible.” Now 39, the former right-back made his name at Glasgow Rangers before making half a century of games for Tottenham and then around 190 appearances for Aston Villa.

While with Spurs, Hutton joined Sunderland on loan in February 2010 and made 11 appearances on Wearside. It was reported that the Black Cats wanted to make the deal permanent that summer and the player was keen, only for the Wearsiders to shy away from the deal because they weren’t prepared to pay the transfer fee Spurs were demanding.

Sunderland have now surpassed the four-month mark without having a manager in place. The Black Cats sacked Michael Beale on February 19 and named Mike Dodds as interim manager until the summer, a move that didn’t go well with the club slumping to a 16th place finish in the Championship.

Read more: Sunderland board blasted and told Frank Lampard won't come under 'worrying' guidelines

Since the season ended, from the outside at least, it appears as though Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been unable to nail down his chosen candidates for the job. Will Still is understood to have been the number one choice, after reportedly agreeing to join Sunderland, before landing the RC Lens job in France.

Liam Rosenior was then set for further talks before he too pulled out of contention. Both Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman have been questioned as to why the situation should be allowed to drag on so long.

A barrage of criticism has been seen online as fans have been left bemused at why it is taking so long. Now Hutton has had his say on the matter. Speaking to The Real EFL, commented: “For them not to have a manager in place is quite incredible.

“Normally, you’d have sat down with your sporting director, or head of recruitment and nailed down who you want and already organised your pre-season. It’s all over the place. This is a big football club. You would expect this not to be happening. It just doesn’t seem right. They need to get it sorted ASAP.”

Bizarrely, the Sunderland players are set to return to pre-season training in a couple of weeks and, with no manager in place, it’s a worry. It leaves Louis-Dreyfus with much work to do, both in securing a new head coach and working through the minefield of player recruitment, while fending off approaches for the club’s own star players.