Former boss Sam Allardyce has claimed that Sunderland require a manager "with great experience" in order to move the club away from the Championship relegation zone.
At the end of last month, the Black Cats parted company with Simon Grayson with the club failing to record a league win since August, and a number of names have been linked with the vacant job at the Stadium of Light.
However, Allardyce - who kept Sunderland in the Premier League during the 2015-16 campaign - has suggested that only experience will do at the North-East outfit, with the ex-England coach claiming that Grayson had seemed the right man for the job.
The 63-year-old is quoted by the Sunderland Echo: "I thought he was the perfect choice. Unfortunately, the rot must have set in at Sunderland and when you go into a relegated club, and I had experience at West Ham, it's one hell of a job.
"You have so many disgruntled players, staff have been let go and made redundant, the place is on its knees and it takes something really special to revive it and get it going in the first season.
"That was certainly his (Grayson's) biggest problem. Players not performing to the level they can, players getting sold on or pushed out on loan on bigger wages. "The club really needs a manager now with great experience to pull that all together and get a team playing and functioning, and make sure they don't get relegated again."
Ahead of Saturday's home game with Millwall, Sunderland are three points adrift of safety at the second tier.
