CONFIRMED DEAL: According to a report this morning on Sky Sports, Sunderland has formally appointed its old boss as their new coach.

Sunderland tipped to make ‘pretty desperate’ move and appoint Championship rival manager

Sunderland have been tipped to make a ‘pretty desperate’ move in their search for a new manager.

Sunderland don’t appear to be any closer to appointing their new manager after Liam Rosenior pulled out earlier this week.

The club had insisted they hadn’t been forced back to square one and had a number of unnamed candidates on their shortlist, but everything has gone quiet on the media front.

Having missed out on the likes of Rosenior, Will Still and Bo Svensson, the only name that is of public interest to Sunderland is Marti Cifuentes.

The Black Cats have been linked with the QPR manager recently, but it was reported that they would have to cough up a six-figure compensation fee if they were to lure him to Wearside.

It seemed extremely unlikely that the club would be willing to do so, while it would have also been surprising if Cifuentes had wanted to leave Loftus Road for the Stadium of Light.

Journalist predicts Sunderland to appoint Marti Cifuentes

Despite that, We Are Sunderland journalist Joe Ramage has tipped the club to make the ‘pretty desperate’ move to pay the fee and appoint Cifuentes this summer.

He wrote: “Marti Cifuentes is now the leading candidate to take over at the Stadium of Light after talks with Rosenior broke down, but Sunderland will need to muster up a compensation package for the Queens Park Rangers boss – something they were either unable or unwilling to do with first choice candidate Still back in December and with Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl following the end of the season.

“At this stage of proceedings, however, for the club to go out and pay compensation and poach a head coach from another club seems like it would be the best first move to make in building bridges with supporters by virtue of it exhibiting some signs of intent which have been lacking.

“It feels as though things are getting pretty desperate, and the club know they can’t afford to take much more time over their decision. Cifuentes may not have been the initial first choice candidate, but the time to act is now.”

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus doesn’t have a choice anymore

While Sunderland have claimed to have some unnamed candidates on their radar, it is definitely concerning that no names have emerged over the last few days.