CONFIRMED: Michael Beale appointed Sunderland head coach

Sunderland have confirmed the appointment of former Rangers and QPR boss Michael Beale as their new head coach.

The 43-year-old will replace Tony Mowbray, who was sacked two weeks ago after a poor run of form for the Championship promotion hopefuls.

Beale has an extensive coaching background, having worked at Chelsea, Sao Paolo and Liverpool before joining Steven Gerrard as first team coach at Rangers and Aston Villa.

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He split from Gerrard at the start of the 2022/23 season to take the top job at QPR but left after just 22 games to take over at Rangers.

His 11 month-stay at Ibrox ended earlier this season, though, with him held to account for a very poor summer transfer window that led to a poor start of the season.

That means he arrives at Sunderland with a lot of work to do to win over a supporter base that is highly sceptical of his appointment.

“We have monitored Michael’s career for some time and we are delighted to have reached an agreement for him to become our new Head Coach," Sunderland sporting director Kristjan Speakman said.

"He has an excellent and well-founded reputation for developing players and he is an outstanding progressive coach, who is aligned with our playing identity and naturally fits within our structure alongside Mike Dodds and the wider team.

"We continue to trust in our established process of identifying the right candidates to take us forward at these junctures, and although Michael has had a setback, we feel we are getting him at the right time in his coaching journey and our journey as a club.”

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