LIAM Rosenior is extremely unlikely to be the next Sunderland head coach - with the former Hull boss keen to assess his options amid strong interest from Burnley.

The Black Cats have held lengthy talks with Rosenior over the course of the past week and the 39-year-old emerged as a frontrunner to take charge at the Stadium of Light.

But in a fresh twist, Sunderland have now been forced to turn their attention elsewhere. The Black Cats want to bring a swift end to what has been a long and drawn out search for Michael Beale's replacement, while Rosenior is thought to be keen to see how the Burnley situation plays out.

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He isn't likely to be short of offers this summer or even early into season on the back of his impressive work at Hull, where he was surprisingly sacked despite a seventh-place finish.

The latest development means Sunderland's search for a new boss goes on, with no obvious favourite as things stand.

Marti Cifuentes is on Sunderland's shortlist but the fact he's in work at QPR means any pursuit of the Spaniard would almost certainly be a costly and drawn-out process.

Sunderland don't have time on their side, with the squad due to return for the start of pre-season later this month and with Kryil Louis-Dreyfus having last week said he hoped an appointment was "imminent".

Sunderland are understood to have other leading targets who they spoken to at length, but the identify of those candidates is not known at this stage.

Contenders have fallen away in recent weeks, with Will Still having taken charge of Lens and Pascal Jansen ruled out of the race of the weekend.

Rene Maric is admired by Sunderland's hierarchy but the Bayern Under-19 boss looks set to step up and join Vincent Kompany's first team staff.