After the 3-3 draw on Halloween night with Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland manager Simon Grayson was the latest man to be given his marching orders after an insipid start to the season leaving the ex Leeds manager becoming the eighth manager to lose his job in six years at Sunderland.
The club was on a downward spiral on and off the pitch. On the pitch, they were struggling near the bottom of the Championship after shipping some heavy defeats and goal concessions in each game and despite the best efforts of loan signing Lewis Grabban at the other end of the table, the team were struggling to build any kind of momentum.
Off the pitch, the club were encountering some difficulty financially with US billionaire Ellis Short still in charge. Short was keen to sell the club and had already commenced the process of winding down the funds he was inputting into the club which saw the quality of signings coming in deteriorate however the constant chopping and changing of management certainly did force him to spend more on managers than he would not have liked.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 31: Sunderland manager Simon Grayson during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers at Stadium of Light on October 31, 2017 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 31: Sunderland manager Simon Grayson during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers at Stadium of Light on October 31, 2017 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
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On this day in 2017, the Northern Echo wrote an article outlining the ambitions of Short and his Sunderland board in relation to finding the replacement for Simon Grayson.
The newspaper had reported that club CEO Martin Bain was tasked with finding the new manager for the club and reported interviews with fellow Scot Ally McCoist had brought positive conversations.
Additionally, the report states that despite certain favoritism towards McCoist within the Sunderland hierarchy, Bain’s number one candidate was Barnsley manager Paul Heckingbottom who was making a name for himself at the Tykes.
After rising through the ranks, Heckingbottom won the Football League Trophy and Play Off Final with Barnsley the previous season and had become one of the most sought after managers in the EFL. The newspaper reports that Sunderland weren’t the only team keen on the Barnlsey manager with Nottingham Forest experessing interest in acquiring his services.
In what was seen as an apparent stumbling block, Heckingbottom would demand a £400,00 yearly salary which would be four times what he was on at Barnsley and it is said that Bain was keen to offer this with the support of Ellis Short.
Heckingbottom, who spent four years on Sunderland’s books as a trainee without making a single senior appearance, is one of the lowest-paid managers in the Championship, with his current contract understood to be worth around £100,000-a-year.
The Black Cats will offer more than four times that amount, with their contract offer also set to include a performance-related bonus structure that could see Heckingbottom receive significant payments for first keeping Sunderland in the Championship and then leading them back to the top-flight.
The fact that Sunderland were keen to pay the big bucks to bring the Barnsley manager into the club displayed Short’s continual interest in the club but it became swiftly clear that Heckingbottom wasn’t eager to leave the comfort and security of Barnsley for the basket case that life as a Sunderland manager had become.
With Heckingbottom ultimately refusing the interest, the club moved on to other targets with former Wales international manager Chris Coleman eventually becoming the man tasked with trying to turn Sunderland’s fortunes around.
Whether he would be able to do this would become clear fairly quickly.
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 06: Barnsley manager Paul Heckingbottom during The Emirates FA Cup Third Round match between Millwall and Barnsley at The Den on January 6, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 06: Barnsley manager Paul Heckingbottom during The Emirates FA Cup Third Round match between Millwall and Barnsley at The Den on January 6, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)
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