SUNDERLAND were close to appointing a new assistant manager at the start of last month – only for the recruitment process to be placed on hold after talks broke down.

The Black Cats held discussions with a leading candidate to join their backroom staff as assistant to head coach Regis Le Bris.

However, talks with the unnamed figure were ended without an agreement being reached in the early weeks of the season.

With transfer issues coming to a head ahead of deadline-day at the end of last month, Kristjaan Speakman and Le Bris decided to pause their search for a new senior coaching figure rather than attempt to juggle too many competing priorities.

The recruitment process will resume later this month, though, with Le Bris having been operating without an assistant in place since he took over on Wearside at the start of July.

“The main thing is that we’re looking for the right calibre of person to fit the profile,” said Speakman, who continues to insist that Le Bris will have the final say over any appointment. “That’s the most important thing, and Regis is really clear on what he feels is the right profile, which we’re 100 per cent aligned on.

RECOMMENDED READING:

“So, it’s about finding the right person. We got really close to getting somebody several weeks ago, but that wasn’t able to conclude the way we would have liked it to have done. At that point, we were entering the last two or three weeks of the window, so it didn’t make sense to over-complicate an already really busy period with the window coming to a head and the season starting.

“So, we sort of hit the pause button on it really because we were really comfortable with where we’re at. That doesn’t mean that we’re not ambitious to keep improving, and we will pick that process back up and hopefully find one or maybe more people to come and join the team.”

As well as looking to recruit a new assistant boss, Speakman is also overseeing a more wide-ranging reshuffle of Sunderland’s first-team coaching staff.

“There are other first-team members of staff that we are adding to that pool that’s not in the assistant bracket,” he explained. “We also think, from a psychological perspective, they are going to help us with what we’re doing. It’s a constant process for us to keep trying to improve.”