STEWART DONALD is confident he will have appointed a new Sunderland manager by the start of next week, and is considering offering former boss Chris Coleman a remarkable return to the Stadium of Light.

Donald’s takeover of Sunderland was formally completed on Sunday evening, and the new Black Cats owner conducted an introductory press conference alongside fellow director, Charlie Methven, yesterday afternoon.

In a wide-ranging discussion, he confirmed he was the sole investor in the takeover, and had agreed to pay Ellis Short £40m over the course of the next two years. The Oxford-based insurance specialist will pay around £25m in outstanding transfer fees this summer, and has pledged to reduce Sunderland’s outgoings significantly as they prepare for life in League One.

His immediate priority is the appointment of a new manager, and he intends to speak to “three or four” candidates in the next couple of days. St Mirren boss Jack Ross, Leicester City coach Michael Appleton and Bolton Wanderers manager Phil Parkinson feature highly on his wanted list, but he will also consider making a surprise approach to Coleman, who left his former position as Sunderland boss after the club’s relegation to League One was confirmed.

“Potentially, we would look to speak to Chris,” said Donald, who has sold National League club Eastleigh in order to take charge on Wearside. “There’s a view of whether or not League One is Chris’ domain, but when we’ve looked at the list of people who have applied, and you say you want to speak to three or four people, I think Chris would potentially be in those three or four.

“It wasn’t us (who sacked Coleman), and I wouldn’t rule out potentially talking to Chris. We’ve got one week, we believe, to get ourselves organised.

“What Ellis Short has done through this whole process is that he has tidied up the business as best he can to reduce the liabilities moving forward.

“He has decided that Chris is one of those, and that is up to him. That’s absolutely nothing to do with us, and we wouldn’t necessarily exclude Chris from the process of arranging a new manager. It was completely and utterly down to Ellis.”

Ross is understood to be Sunderland’s preferred option, but the 41-year-old, who won the Scottish Championship title with St Mirren this season, is also believed to be in discussions with Ipswich Town about the managerial vacancy at Portman Road.

Appleton is another leading candidate, having previously managed a number of lower-league clubs including Oxford United, where Donald was a shareholder. Parkinson’s position at Bolton has become increasingly insecure in recent days, with the Championship club keen to bring in external investors who could push for a change of boss.

Donald is determined to make progress in the next 48 hours, with an early appointment regarded as essential given the scale of the changes that are required as Sunderland seek to prepare themselves for life in League One.

“I hope we’ll have a new manager in place very soon,” said Donald. “We’re obviously going to start looking through that process, and I would think we’ll be looking at seven days maximum before we’ve got a new manager.

“We obviously have to move quickly because we need the manager to have as much of the summer as possible to assemble the squad he wants and assess what he’s got. I would be very surprised if by the weekend, we’re not able to say who that will be.”

There will be major changes to the squad this summer, with Donald understandably keen to move on some of the high-earning players that remain on the books.

While Jack Rodwell’s wage will decrease by 40 per cent this summer, he will still be taking home around £42,000-a-week, an annual salary that is comparable to the entire playing budget of some League One clubs.

The likes of Lamine Kone, Papy Djilobodji, Lee Cattermole and Wahbi Khazri will also be made available for sale, with Sunderland’s new owners determined to change the culture of a club that had racked up debts of more than £125m before Short wiped the slate clean.

“We can see Sunderland has lost its sense of what it really is,” said Methven.  “For too long, this club has been throwing cash at people who don’t really want to be here. That p**s-take party stops now.

“From now on, people who come here will be coming here on the appropriate salary and because they desperately want to play for one of the greatest clubs in the world. That is what you need here. Is it too much to ask? We don’t think so, but it has to come right from the top, all the way down, and everyone has to be working very hard.

“The vast majority of the money that is being spent is the fans’ money, and we are fully aware that in this part of the world, that is hard earned. So it needs to be spent carefully, constructively.

“What can Sunderland achieve? The answer is that the sky is the limit with the fan base this club has. But the equivalent clubs are not Chelsea or Tottenham - the equivalent clubs are clubs like Borussia Dortmund, who understand what kind of club they really are which is a big, serious working-class area, passionate about their football club.”

Donald agrees, and is confident Sunderland will start next season with the largest budget in League One despite the financial pressures he is wrestling to overcome.

“Looking at the numbers we have put through, the budget for Sunderland is going to be pretty hefty for League One,” he said. “I would imagine it’s going to be a lot more than any of the teams that got promoted last season had.”