Michael Beale is in advanced discussions with
Sunderland to become their next head coach and talks have progressed to the stage where Beale is expected to attend their Championship match at Bristol City on Saturday.
The 43-year-old Londoner has previously managed
Queens Park Rangers in the
Championship and
Rangers in Scotland.
Beale will not take the team in Bristol — caretaker coach Mike Dodds will remain in charge — meaning Beale’s first game as Tony Mowbray’s successor will be
Coventry City at the Stadium of Light next Saturday.
Sunderland then travel to Hull City on Boxing Day. Beale’s fifth game will be the
FA Cup third-round tie against neighbours
Newcastle United, which comes at home on January 6.
Beale has experience from Glasgow of intense derby atmospheres. He was Steven Gerrard’s assistant when Rangers won the Scottish title in 2020-21, having met Gerrard when the two were young coaches in
Liverpool’s academy. Beale had previously coached briefly at
Chelsea and in Brazil with Sao Paulo.
He was appointed QPR manager in June 2022 and after a difficult start took the west London club to the top of the Championship.
Wolves approached Beale in October but he declined their offer.
A month later, Rangers came in and Beale accepted the move to Glasgow following Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s exit. Beale was up against Ange Postecoglou’s well-drilled
Celtic and came second in the
Scottish Premiership. At the end of September, Beale was dismissed by the Ibrox club after a 3-1 home defeat by
Aberdeen left them third in the table, already six points behind Celtic with only six games played.
Sunderland had conducted interviews with several candidates, with
Reims English head coach Will Still the most high profile. Compensation would have been required to get Still from Reims and it seems Sunderland were put off by that.
Still’s arrival would have stimulated the fanbase. Beale’s will require some selling and in terms of results, he will need to hit the ground running. Mowbray gave the team an identifiable style and personality, while Dodds has just overseen two victories against West Brom and
Leeds United. Those have taken Sunderland to sixth in the Championship.