Just 13 games into his Sunderland career and David Moyes already has only one left to save his job, according to reports from Mirror Football.
Having inherited a depleted squad from Sam Allardyce late in the summer, Moyes has inevitably struggled to make the Black Cats competitive in the Premier League, leaving the club in the same mess they seem to find themselves in around this time every season.
Indeed, the Wearsiders have made the worst ever start to a Premier League season after ten games, picking up a meagre two points and conceding a staggering 20 goals.
Inevitably, Mirror Football believe the winds of change are circling around the club once again, with Moyes now facing the sack unless his side win away at Bournemouth on Saturday – no easy task considering the Cherries haven’t lost a league game at the Vitality Stadium since the opening day of the season.
But who could replace Moyes in the Stadium of Light dugout? Is there actually a candidate who’d do a better job? We have taken a look at the options…
Gary Rowett
Gary Rowett has been performing minor miracles at Birmingham City ever since taking the job in 2014 off the back of reaching the fourth-tier playoff final with Burton Albion. Indeed, despite inheriting a team in 23rd place and club enthralled in boardroom scandal, he kept the Blues up, achieved a solid mid-table finish last season and is now pushing for a playoff spot.
A lack of top flight experience (even as a player) somewhat blemishes the 42-year-old’s credentials, however, and he’s famously Birmingham through-and-through. Would he leave the club now they’re finally on the up?
Frank de Boer
Frank de Boer was sacked by Inter Milan earlier this week and will want to take the chance to prove his former employers wrong as soon as possible.
The iconic Oranje man fits the typical template of total-football-inspired Dutch managers who boast tactical and technical knowledge in equal measure and his record at Ajax was fantastic, winning four Eredivisie titles and often upsetting the odds in the Champions League despite losing key players every summer.
De Boer has been linked with Premier League jobs on umpteen occasions before, although they’re usually of a higher calibre than the potential Sunderland vacancy.
Ryan Giggs
Any available job in the top two tiers of English football inevitably has Ryan Giggs’ name attached to it.
The Welshman is yet to get his chance as a permanent manager but was part of David Moyes’ coaching staff, served as United caretaker briefly in 2014, worked as Louis van Gaal’s assistant for two years and spent his entire career playing under Sir Alex Ferguson.
In a nutshell, few can boast more exposure to some of the game’s greatest gaffers, but whether he can put all the theory into practice remains to be seen. No doubt, appointing him to play catch-up in a relegation battle would be a complete sink-or-swim exercise.
Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp has spent 18 months out of the Premier League but the 69-year-old may have one job left in him before retiring. The former Portsmouth, West Ham and QPR man has been involved in relegation scraps before and knows exactly what it takes to get himself out of them, although his record of second tier avoidance isn’t exactly outstanding.
Sunderland’s best hope of survival, however, is clearly wholesale manoeuvres in the January window and despite his ageing years, Redknapp remains an absolute master of the transfer market. But the underlying concern is that Redknapp would be simply another short-term appointment – he could save Sunderland’s season, but they’d likely end up in the same mess this time next year.
Sam Allardyce
Sunderland fans must be thinking it – get back Sam Allardyce. The former England boss may still be shrouded in controversy but there’s no doubt he was taking Sunderland in the right direction and felt like the perfect fit for the Wearside club, who he’d once represented as a player.
It’s still very much his squad so the 62-year-old could well have an instantaneous impact, by simply reinstalling the philosophy that kept the Black Cats up last season. But whether Allardyce is ready to return to football after his humiliating Three Lions departure remains to be seen.
