As you might have noticed, Sunderland have been linked with Will Still because the manager had reportedly decided that he wanted to be in the running for the job.
It has been widely covered, making headlines both in France and in Belgium, and we now have quotes directly from the manager about the whole situation, as he spoke to the press in a pre-match conference on Thursday, relayed by RMC Sport.
As you might have imagined, the questions were mostly about the Sunderland situation, and he spent a lot of time explaining exactly what had happened.
He first started off that by making it clear that he would be staying at Stade de Reims unless the club ‘decided to fire’ him, with his current focus the game against Lens.
Still revealed it was those in charge of the Ligue 1 club who rang his agent about the Sunderland stories, who then relayed it to the manager himself.
He said: “I knew that at the first chance, people were going to try and change my image or to try and make me pass for a mercenary. It made me laugh more than anything. It’s like saying that I would send my CV to Manchester United because Erik ten Hag is under pressure.
“I know that I’m stupid and that I’m not the smartest, but I’m not that stupid. The president has already told me the stories were doing his head in, we laughed about it because I’m very open about all this. There is interest, there always has been and if I wanted to go to England, I would have gone before now.”
As for why the manager had been travelling to London, where he was reported to have met Sunderland’s Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, he explained that he has a girlfriend there, and that he was a ‘loyal customer of the Eurostar’, having made weekly trips to the capital every week.
Regarding the Sunderland stories themselves, he admits it has been a bit of a distraction.
Still added: “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing. You (the media) have come up with very, very nice stories, and I can’t deny the fact there was interest in me. I can confirm that. Just like the past, like this summer and these past few weeks. I find that rather flattering without being arrogant or pretentious.”
He also explained that clubs had called his agent, Alex Hayes, who had told him about it, and there were ‘many’, but he is currently focused on Reims, and not Sunderland or any other club.
