Dramatic day at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland make key appointment - and target another

The Black Cats have appointed former Birmingham City academy manager Kristjaan Speakman as their new Sporting Director, with the appointment of a Head Coach set to follow.

Former Bristol City boss Lee Johnson is the front-runner for that role as Sunderland’s footballing department undergoes a significant overhaul.

The change in structure is expected to coincide with a change in the ownership of the club, with Juan Sartori and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus set to take a majority share in Sunderland.

And the new appointments won’t be stopping there, with a Head of Player Recruitment set to be appointed – allowing Speakman to take a more broad role.

"From a player development perspective, I’m a big advocate of player development,” explained Speakman, speaking to safc.com.

"But I think player development occurs at different stages. That doesn’t mean people have to come through the academy from eight all the way through, you also have players that develop from 16 through to 23.

“From that standpoint, I think that always provides a great foundation for a football club to then have player acquisition occur in the different phases and have a squad that isn’t leaning too heavily on external sources.

"As I know from my time at Birmingham, the fanbase can always attach themselves to a player who is coming through.

"From a strategic point of view and the ownership group making a selection on who is best to do my role, I think if it was a sporting director position where the emphasis was on player recruitment then I wouldn’t be sat here today.

"There was a complete alignment between me and the owners on what the role looks like and therefore who was best to do that role.

"I see that as me having the autonomy over the football department to make sure it’s aligned across all the different departments and from top to bottom.

"Recruitment is one fifth. We’ll be in a position in the coming days to get our recruitment search underway for a Head of Player Recruitment – and I think that underlines the nature and direction that this project is going to take.”