Sunderland appoint Michael Beale as manager until summer 2026
Upon being appointed as the new head coach of Sunderland on Monday, Michael Beale expressed his feeling of being "honoured".
It's reasonable to believe that a lot of Sunderland supporters are not entirely satisfied with the choice to swap out the highly admired Tony Mowbray for the 43-year-old from London. This implies that Beale should make a strong and immediate impact as he takes on his initial responsibility of leading the team in their game against Coventry at the Stadium of Light this coming weekend.
The ex-manager of Rangers and QPR is thrilled to be a part of Sunderland now. He has signed a contract for two and a half years. His fifth responsibility as the manager will be to lead the team in the Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle at home in the third round of FA Cup in the coming month. Being a part of the Sunderland family is a great honor to him.
Even though Mowbray did a great job taking Sunderland to the semi-finals of the playoffs last season and creating a young and appealing attacking team that is currently ranked seventh in the second tier, there have been growing issues between the 60-year-old coach and the club's owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, since last season.
However, it was still unexpected when Sunderland decided to let go of Mowbray after 15 months of his tenure. It was believed that 31-year-old Reims manager Will Still was the preferred choice of Louis-Dreyfus, but there was a stalemate due to the requirement to pay compensation to the Ligue 1 club.
Many different options were considered but Beale was chosen as the most impressive candidate by Sunderland's sporting director, Kristjaan Speakman, and Louis-Dreyfus. Speakman revealed that they had been observing Michael's career for a while and were thrilled to come to an agreement with him. As a result, Mike Dodds, who was previously the interim caretaker coach under Mowbray, has been elevated to the position of assistant head coach.
Michael Beale possesses a remarkable and substantiated character for enhancing the skills of budding players. He is an exceptional coach who values progress and is in sync with our playing style. Due to his compatibility with our system, he seamlessly becomes a part of our team.
Beale caught the attention of Steven Gerrard while working as a coach at Liverpool's academy. This led to him becoming Gerrard's coach for the first team at Rangers when the former England midfielder became their manager. Beale then went on to follow Gerrard to Aston Villa.
He became a manager on his own after he was appointed by QPR - a team in the Championship league - in June of 2022. However, he left them just a few months later in November to go back to Ibrox, but this time as a head coach.
Rangers fired Beale this October due to his lackluster performance in the ongoing season. He had managed to secure the second spot in the Scottish Premiership in the previous season.
After a brief stint as a junior player, he ventured into coaching at the age of 21. He spent some time in Brazil studying futsal before taking on the role of an academy coach at both Chelsea and Liverpool.
