What Will Still has said about the Sunderland job and what to make of it

Will Still is remaining tip-lipped on reports linking him with the Sunderland job after being confronted by a journalist in Reims.

Reports in L’Equipe have very adamantly claims Still is very interested in replacing Tony Mowbray at Sunderland, even to the point of approaching the club himself through his agent.

L’Equipe say Still met with Sunderland earlier this week and presented his vision for taking over on Wearside, and it was now down to the club to agree a compensation package with Stade de Reims.

They then backed up that report with another claiming the Reims chairman is furious with Still and tensions were running high at the club.

However, there have also been conflicting reports from other outlets saying Still is happy in Reims and is highly unlikely to take the reigns on Wearside.

Reims held an open training session on Wednesday for fans ahead of their game against Lens this weekend and one local journalist took the opportunity to confront Still over the reports linking him to Sunderland. His response was coy.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the press,” he told journalist Isabelle Griffon.

What to make of Will Still’s comments about Sunderland

In truth, Still’s comments don’t really help anyone in trying to figure out if he will be the next Sunderland head coach or not.

Then again, they were quite obviously designed to be deliberately non-committal, which in itself gives an insight into what’s going on.

Generally speaking, when there are conflicting reports in the press, especially with really credible outlets such as L’Equipe involved, it’s best to examine what the reports have in common and work your way outwards.

In this case, L’Equipe claim Will Still really wants the Sunderland job and met with the club, while the conflicting ones say he is interested in the job and met with them, but he will remain at Reims.

Therefore, we can probably assume that Still is at least interested in the job and has met with Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. Those facts are at the core of both stories.

The rest is almost certainly just the battle for the narrative with Sunderland pretty much caught up in a brewing Reims spin-war.

Still has to protect his relationship with the club’s supporters and owners in case Sunderland fail to put up the sizable package it would take to get him. He needs plausible deniability in case it doesn’t happen.

The club’s owners, meanwhile, need to cast Still as the villain of the piece in case it does happen, especially with the reports in L’Equipe also stating that the reason he is considering leaving is due to a lack of ambition from the owners.

Those owners, therefore, need to try to get control of the narrative so that Still is blamed for ditching the club, while his camp will want to make it look like he was forced out by restrictions from the board.

After all, Still could have very easily torpedoed the whole story when confronted by the journalist if there was nothing in it. He didn’t.

It’s probably also worth noting that Still’s agent, Alex Hayes, who many French outlets are reporting to be the man behind approaching Sunderland on his client’s behalf, is a former journalist for L’Equipe where the story originated.

It’s difficult to imagine L’Equipe running their Will Still to Sunderland story without verifying it with Hayes first, especially given their usual standards of reporting.

The elephant in the room, of course, is whether Still is just using Sunderland to strengthen his position with the Stade de Reims board and secure a bit more financial backing in January. That certainly can’t be ruled out.

Whatever happens, Sunderland believe they have no time pressure with which to contend here. Mike Dodds has won two games out of two in temporary charge and the team will be using his preparation for Bristol City regardless of whether or not a new head coach is in the dugout at Ashton Gate.

All we can really be certain about at this point is that Sunderland are trying hard with Will Still. It’s a very complicated situation, though, as well as a difficult deal to do – as is always the case when a head coach is currently in work and his club want to keep him. Those pesky contracts, eh?

The rest is difficult to predict at the moment, but with Still due to hold a press conference ahead of Reims’ weekend game, the battle for the narrative is likely to rumble on a little yet.

What to make of Will Still’s comments about Sunderland

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