Niall Quinn approached by consortium but Sunderland takeover still some way off

The former Black Cats chairman has been strongly linked with a return to the club over the last 24 hours as takeover talk dominates Wearside.

Quinn has been in contact with an Irish-based consortium who are interested in taking the club off Ellis Short's hands.

However, his involvement would only be in an advisory role, with Quinn having no interest in returning to the day-to-day running of a club at this stage.

Reports yesterday suggested that Quinn had held talks with Short over a possible deal, but the club has distanced itself from those claims.

A number of groups are believed to have expressed an interest in buying the club from Short, who is understood to be willing to slash the asking price if new owners are willing to take on the debt. However, no deal with any group is understood to be close at this point.