Kevin Phillips has spoken regarding the vacant Sunderland manager’s job – but despite declaring his interest, says it’s too soon.
The former Black Cat had been working with Leicester in a coaching capacity, first under Nigel Pearson and then under ‘The Tinkerman’, Claudio Ranieri.
It was a testament to how well Phillips had done in his role at Leicester that Ranieri decided to keep the Englishman on when he joined the club.
Although acknowledging now isn’t the right time, Phillips did say he’d like to take the job in the future.
I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I would one day love to manage Sunderland, or be part of a management team at the club. That would be a dream.
And you never know what might happen one day further down the road because so much you don’t expect tends to happen in football.
Phillips scored over 100 goals at Sunderland in his time with the club.
Phillips is now working under Paul Clement at Derby, an opportunity he describes as “too good to turn down”.
It’s a wonderful club with wonderful facilities and a clear vision of what it wants to do and it is being run right.
‘Super Kev’ was keen to give his former club support during what’s been a testing time in the league.
Sunderland can easily do the same [as Leicester did last season] and remember we’re just eight games in right now, there’s a long, long way to go and the right person can do it.
A return to the North East may not be close for Phillips, but if it did ever happen, he’d certainly be a popular choice.
