Sunderland boss admits off-field situation is 'nowhere near being resolved'

The Black Cats will drop into League One if they lose to Burton Albion and both Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers pick up at least a point from their respective fixtures, or they draw at home to the side directly above them in the table while Birmingham and Bolton both win.

A Sunderland victory is the only way Coleman’s side can guarantee going into the final two games of the season with survival still a possibility, but even if the Wearsiders were to somehow clamber to safety, some huge answered questions would remain.

The most important of those relates to the ownership of the club, with absentee owner Ellis Short still desperate to sell up after moving back to the United States.

The last two months have seen a number of different parties linked with potential bids, but while chief executive Martin Bain has been in contact with a range of interested groups, no one has begun a process of due diligence that would be a precursor to a formal offer.

Bain also remains in regular contact with Short, but while Coleman has received a series of briefings about their discussions, he remains as uncertain about the future as ever.

“Martin is in contact with the owner, and he conveys that through to me,” said the Sunderland boss. “Martin is in contact with Ellis, and he passes that information on, but even with that, there’s still a lot of uncertainty.

“I’d like to be able to sit here and say that something was imminent and we were on the verge of getting a new owner, or that Ellis is staying and so this is the plan. But if I’m being honest, we’re nowhere near any of that. We’re nowhere near a position where either of those things is happening.”

The ongoing lack of clarity makes planning for the future extremely difficult, not least because Coleman is not even certain that he will still be in his current position next season, no matter what division Sunderland are playing in.

The former Wales boss signed a two-and-a-half year contract when he agreed to replace Simon Grayson last November, and will not be subject to a wage cut if Sunderland drop into League One.

He wants to remain at the Stadium of Light, although will not make a firm decision over his plans until there is a greater degree of clarity about what is happening above him, but concedes that his future could be taken out of his hands. If Short remains in charge, the American financier could opt to put Sunderland in the hands of the administrators or opt for a cheaper manager to lead a rebuilding job in League One. If new owners are appointed, they could look to enact their own managerial plans.

“The hardest thing is that we’re working on certain things even though we know we might be wasting our time,” said Coleman. “We’ve got to make sure we’re trying as best we can, just in case. If we wait another month or two or three weeks, we’re behind everybody else. It’s a lot of work at the minute, and we’re shooting off in different directions just in case.

“It’s tough, but it’s tough on all the people here, and to be fair, they’ve been brilliant. It’s really hard for them because they’re faced with the ‘R’ word, relegation, which has consequences for jobs. And that’s tough for everybody because it’s the not knowing that is hard.

“Ironically enough, we’re all in the same boat because of the ownership of the club and who is going to be here. It’s the same for me, we just don’t know if we’re going to be in or out of work. But everybody has got on with it really well. The atmosphere with the staff has been very good, very positive. We’ve all been in it together.”

Relegation will have inevitable financial consequences, and Sunderland were forced to lay off more than 80 staff when they dropped out of the Premier League 12 months ago. There will almost certainly be more cost-cutting if the Black Cats find themselves in League One, although even that is dependent on Short and the direction he decides to take.

“Any club that gets relegated, there’s consequences for everybody,” said Coleman. “The problem we’ve got is that we don’t know who is going to be here above me. We can talk forever – ‘are we keeping this one, are we keeping that one, his contract’s up, he’s got a clause, he hasn’t’.

“We could be here all day, but none of it matters until we know who is going to be here upstairs, and what their plan is for this football club. Then, the questions about the future are easier to answer.

“We can say, ‘Right, we’re cutting our cloth here because this is what we’re being told and that is what we’ve got to play with’ or ‘We’re going to have to make things tighter’. At the minute, it’s the uncertainty and not knowing that is the hardest thing.”