CHAMPIONSHIP
SUNDERLAND are expected to make a fresh approach for Reims manager Will Still in the summer.
Still, 31, was the first choice of Sunderland’s owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman following the dismissal of Tony Mowbray in December.
However, the pair baulked at a £5m compensation clause in Still’s contract and subsequently appointed former QPR and Rangers boss Michael Beale.
Unpopular with supporters from the outset, Beale was dismissed by the Championship club on Monday having won just four of his 12 matches at the helm.
Mike Dodds, the club’s head of individual player development, was immediately installed as interim head coach until the end of the season - a move publicly endorsed by several members of the Sunderland dressing room.
However, the 37-yearold is unlikely to be offered the role permanently regardless of his performance in the remaining games of the season.
There is now an acknowledgement within the club hierarchy that failing to buy Still out of his contract was a mistake and a money-no-object approach is currently being readied.
Still, who has one year left on his deal at Reims and is known to be unhappy with the Ligue 1 side’s conservative transfer policy, has already signalled his willingness to work in England’s second tier.
“Obviously,
