Sunderland’s desperation to escape League One has led to the dismissal of Jack Ross. The 43-year-old Scot had been on borrowed time at the Stadium of Light after failing to win promotion last spring and when the team suffered its second defeat of the season at Lincoln on Saturday the manager’s fate seemed all but sealed.
It was the 10th loss suffered by Ross in 75 games in charge and it left Sunderland sixth in the table, eight points behind the leader, Ipswich, but Stewart Donald, the club’s owner, expected more from a manager with the third tier’s largest budget.
Donald has spent the past few weeks in negotiations with a group of American billionaires backed by Michael Dell, of computer company fame, about a potential takeover but talks have become protracted. Although Donald denied the buy-out is off, things seem opaque as the search for a new manager begins.
Ross’s assistant, James Fowler, will be in charge for Football League Trophy tie at home to Grimsby but a longer-term replacement should be in charge when Sunderland visit Wycombe on Saturday week.
Whoever takes charge – and early speculation surrounds potential returns for Roy Keane and Sam Allardyce plus, among other candidates, Phil Parkinson, Daniel Stendel and Kevin Phillips – will be expected to avoid the glut of 1-1 draws that became Ross’s unwanted trademark.
While Sunderland recently found beating Burnley and Sheffield United to reach the League Cup’s last-16 relatively straightforward, they made heavy weather of more modest opposition. When travelling supporters called for Ross’s head during a 1-1 draw at Bolton time appeared to be running out for the former St Mirren manager who never really recovered from having to sell his leading scorer, Josh Maja, to Bordeaux for £3.5m in January.
Will Grigg, Maja’s £3m replacement, came with a poacher’s reputation but troubled by injury, has struggled to re-discover his scoring touch. Although Sunderland reached Wembley in last season’s Checkatrade Trophy and League One play-off finals, they lost both games.
“This is a decision made with a heavy heart,” said Donald. “When we arrived at the club 18 months ago we appointed Jack because we felt that he was the right man to take Sunderland forward over a number of years.
“Jack has worked extremely hard and helped us achieve stability and I sincerely thank him for his efforts. I hope and believe he will go on to have a successful career in management.”
On Twitter, Donald disputed rumours that the takeover on the part of the US-based billionaires Glenn Fuhrman, John Phelan and Rob Platek had collapsed and promised a detailed update by the weekend.
“Potential investment is still very possible,” tweeted the current owner who envisages Dell assuming a passive role as a minority investor: “Price is not an issue, just give it a few days.”
