Sunderland have announced, via the club’s official website, that they have completed their recruitment process of hiring Sam Allardyce’s first-team backroom staff.
Paul Bracewell has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Robbie Stockdale has been appointed as First Team Coach and Mark Taylor has been recruited as the club’s Performance Director.
Bracewell, who was capped three times by England during his playing days, first joined the club as the Development Coach for the Under 21s & Under 18s. In June this year, he was promoted to First Team Coach and has now been promoted again to the role of Big Sam’s second-in-command.
Robbie Stockdale first joined Sunderland as a youth coach, before becoming the manager of the club’s Under 21 side. He filled the role of acting Head Coach when Dick Advocaat left earlier this season and now finds himself in the role of First Team Coach.
Mark Taylor, the club’s new Performance Director, first worked with Sam Allardyce at Blackpool, before following him to Bolton and then Newcastle.
Current Stoke City boss Mark Hughes, who also worked with Taylor during his time at Fulham, had this to say about Sunderland’s latest backroom addition:
Mark Taylor is … the most qualified of his type. Mark and his team can give you the extra one or two percent that can make a difference on a Saturday afternoon.
