Sunderland Close to Appointing St Mirren's Jack Ross as New Manager Ahead of Summer Rebuild

Sunderland could confirm the appointment of Jack Ross as the club's new manager on Wednesday, following the sacking of Chris Coleman at the end of the season.

The Black Cats have been busy behind the scenes in recent weeks, with owner Ellis Short parting ways with the club to allow Stewart Donald to take over ahead of the new campaign.

And Donald's first action in charge of Sunderland has been to appoint a new manager, with St Mirren head coach Ross deemed to be the man who will guide the club back into the Championship.

Donald has already confirmed that the club are edging closer to the deal, stating that they have "agreed terms and the contracts are with the lawyers" ahead of Ross' appointment, according to the BBC.

Ross was named as Manager of the Year this season after he guided St Mirren through an impressive promotion campaign back into the top flight of Scottish football.

The 41-year-old did have a contract at St Mirren Park until 2020, but the attractiveness of moving to a club the size of Sunderland appears to have swayed Ross to leave the Scottish second tier after two years in charge.

But St Mirren chairman Gordon Scott appears to have thrown a spanner in the works, claiming that there must be some 'major skullduggery' going on as Ross is supposedly away on holiday.

"There has been no contact with us and Jack is on holiday abroad so unless there is some major skullduggery going on it’s nonsense," Scott told the Scottish Daily Mail's chief football writer, Stephen McGowan, as quoted on social media.

Ross has previous experience with Scottish League One side Alloa Athletic, while his first managerial role came as the interim coach of Dumbarton in 2012. The head coach has also worked with top-tier side Hearts, taking charge of their U20 squad for over a year in 2014.

Ross will reportedly have his current salary increased five times over to move to the Stadium of Light, and the Black Cats will only have to pay around £50k in compensation to St Mirren.