It doesn’t matter that three months have passed since the whole Sunderland meeting with Will Still debacle, the French media still ask him about it.
The latest utterance of the fiery saga that took place before the January transfer window was mentioned to the Stade de Reims manager in a L’Equipe podcast about being a manager called L’Enfer du Banc.
Discussing many aspects of the job, the 31-year-old was asked about his candid reply to the questions surrounding Sunderland’s interest in him, and why he decided to be so open about it all in a press conference, claiming that he was travelling to London to see his girlfriend.
He said: “I prefer to be perfectly honest and completely open with everyone because it avoids rumours, it avoids the ‘someone told me that…’, it avoids innuendos that are detestable in the world of football, and I prefer to be transparent.
“I told the directors here: ‘Yeah, there are clubs that call me, there are clubs that are interested in what we do, because I’m never by myself’. I find that flattering. I think I would be stupid to not find that flattering. If people ask me, I’m not going to start lying, to make the outside world feel that I’m stressed when I’m not. That’s why I said it, especially with that humorous tone.”
Instead of going after Still, Sunderland finally decided to hire Michael Beale, who was without a club, but the former Rangers manager only managed 12 games in charged before Juan Sartori pulled the plug.
The Black Cats will now finish the season without a manager, as Mike Dodds takes over once again in the interim, surrounded by others to try and help him.
