While it’s clear that Will Still will not be the next Sunderland manager, with all fingers pointing to Michael Beale at this moment in time, there needs to be some clarification about what happened when it comes to the Black Cats and the Stade de Reims manager.
Various articles in the French media on Wednesday made it seem as if the 31-year-old was the one who had started the whole process, wanting to meet with the Championship side and allegedly doing so.
Still dismissed that himself on Thursday in a press conference, and now Emmanuel Petit, who knows both the manager and his agent, Alex Hayes, reveals on Friday that he had a long conversation with both to clarify what happened, and explained it all on RMC Sport for Rothen S’Enflamme.
He also spoke with someone else at Stade de Reims and explained all three parties were ‘extremely surprised about this story that isn’t really one’.
Petit then explained: “Everyone knows that Will Still is very much in demand. A lot of clubs have made approaches, not directly with Reims but have done so with his agent. That’s what agents are for, to filter. If anyone did the wrong thing, it’s the clubs. It’s not Will Still or his agent who picked up the phone and asked around.”
Petit added: “He has never met with the Sunderland directors, but he knows that the directors of Sunderland have contacted Alex Hayes. That Alex Hayes then spoke with Sunderland, that’s his job.”
So, that’s Will Still’s side of the story, and one any Sunderland fan may want to accept, or not. After all, we’ll probably never know exactly what happened.
🚨 INFO MANU PETIT 🚨
🗣💬 "J'ai appelé Will Still. On lui reproche son ingratitude et sa trahison. Tout le monde sait que le coach de Reims est convoité. Il n'a jamais rencontré les dirigeants de Sunderland mais ils ont contacté son agent." pic.twitter.com/EVqhDEzxJJ
— Rothen s'enflamme (@Rothensenflamme) December 15, 2023
