Martin O'Neill Close To Becoming New Sunderland Manager?

brought down the axe on Steve Bruce after an appalling 2011 in charge of the Wearsiders, who now lie 16th in the table and are looking anxiously over their shoulder at the drop zone. The word is talks with O'Neill went well and he will be swiftly appointed after the weekend's game away at Wolves, for which Assistant Manager Eric Black will be in charge. The expectation is O'Neill may be in the stands by Saturday's game at the Molineux. O'Neilll is known to have been a Sunderland fan as a kid. 59 year old O'Neill has been out of work since quitting as Aston Villa boss just days before the start of the 2009/2010 season. He comes in with a huge reputation having guided Leicester to the dizzy heights of the top half of the Premier League consistently in the 90's (not to mention two League Cup titles, one runner-up medal and stints in Europe), enjoying the best spell of any manager at Celtic in years (won three League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup) and then almost... almost... taking Aston Villa to the Champions League a few seasons back after three straight seasons finishing 6th (though one of those they had 4th in their hands before collapsing near the end). He is widely spoken of as one of the most intelligent men in the game and his attacking and adventurous style has often yielded great results. He is known as a boss who likes to spend (at least he did at Villa) but he ALWAYS bought wisely and when you look at players like Ashley Young and James Milner, he bought high quality talent whose marquee value was much higher by the time they were sold. If he is appointed, it does bring up an interesting discussion about how much money he will be given to spend. Sunderland sold Darren Bent to Aston Villa last January for a huge fee which was reinvested by Bruce on nearly a dozen purchases in the summer, the majority of which have been underwhelming. Just weeks into the season, Sunderland also let go their most expensive signing Asamoah Gyan to Middle-East obscurity when, according to Niall Quinn, they got a financial package that was flattering and they would have save money with him elsewhere than have him playing poorly in the Premier League. One imagines O'Neill wouldn't have taken the job unless he was able to spend in the January transfer window. Most of the radio and phone-ins on Wednesday night and all day Thursday included Sunderland fans who all said O'Neill was their number one choice for the job. Former chairman Niall Quinn is to meet with the players today at the Academy of Light training ground to let them know the latest developments.