With their 2-0 loss to Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday, Sunderland’s miserable second half of the Championship season came to a conclusion, solidifying their 16th-place finish.

Now, focus is shifting to an exciting summer that will include a new head coach appointment and a partial squad construction. What’s the final one, and what can fans anticipate coming up next? Here, we address the three main queries as they currently stand.

What’s new on the search for a head coach, and who is being considered?

After the season ends, Sunderland’s hunt is coming to an end, and the club’s management has made it apparent that finding Michael Beale’s long-term replacement is their top priority as they prepare for a hectic summer of reconstruction.

According to The Echo, there is currently no imminent appointment, so fans will probably have to wait a little while longer to find out who will be in charge of leading a play-off campaign the next season. After Beale left, Sunderland decided against making an appointment right away. They reasoned that it would be better to take some time to consider what went wrong with the last appointment and to give themselves enough time to conduct a thorough investigation in the hopes of improving results. Above all, the process of finding Tony Mowbray’s successor had demonstrated that a larger pool of excellent candidates will be available in the summer. There is still some work to be done in many leagues and, in certain situations, decisions about futures must be made, so Sunderland’s process is not quite over. The drawback of the team’s cautious strategy is that it has evidently created a leadership void in recent months, and the campaign’s disappointing conclusion has left the fan base feeling generally indifferent. With this strategy, the stakes are much higher, and making the proper choice in terms of the appointment is essential if the club wants to maintain its project’s support from supporters into the upcoming season and beyond.

The requirements that Sunderland has set for its next head coach haven’t altered all that much; they are still seeking a man with a strong coaching history and a track record of developing players. They may have drawn some insights from the Beale era in realizing how crucial it is for the candidate to be able to connect with supporters and manage the particular demands of managing one of the biggest clubs in the UK.

Danny Rohl is well-known for being respected for his exceptional performance at Sheffield Wednesday this season as well as his coaching experience, but he will likely have many suitors, and the initial discussions on his future at Hillsborough are said to have gone well. After leaving Stade de Reims last week, Will Still is a clear candidate and is regarded highly by the club administration. He is currently a free agent. Despite the fact that he will probably be in high demand, he is still keen to return to the UK and is prepared to play in the Championship to make it happen. Rene Maric, who is presently employed with Bayern Munich, is another name that has been frequently associated with the role. According to what we hear, Maric is obviously well-regarded because he was a good candidate in the past for the job, but he hasn’t shown himself to be a serious contender just yet. It’s obvious that things can change rapidly.

At this point, it’s also important to note that Sunderland has spoken with and evaluated a significant number of applicants, many of whom have not been made public, due to the length of time they have taken to go through this process. As the process moves into what should be the final few weeks, some of those will still be in the running.

Does this imply that the upcoming season’s preparations and recruitment are on hold?

No. The head coach will be required to operate within the club’s current football and recruitment system, as well as with Sunderland’s current coaching staff (and maybe add some of their own). Because of this, many pre-season plans have already been completed by those who are currently employed, and decisions regarding those who will be out of contract this summer have already been made. In order to determine the roles Sunderland would need to fill through recruitment, recruitment discussions started last month. Over the coming weeks, they will intensify as they draw closer to identifying and choosing targets.

Obviously, having a head coach in place when those negotiations get underway would be a huge help since it would enable them to contribute their own ideas and express their own needs and desires moving ahead. They haven’t lost much time in terms of assembling the team for the upcoming campaign and allowing the new manager some time to get settled as of yet, but if the situation isn’t handled by the end of the month, that will start to change.

Are Sunderland going to alter the hotly contested “model” after such a dismal second half of the season? At this point, what do we know about the team’s makeup for the upcoming season?

It’s evident from Mike Dodds’ statement that Sunderland fans shouldn’t anticipate a significant change in the team’s approach. Sunderland will again feature one of, if not the youngest team in the division, next season as a testament to their unwavering dedication to signing players with potential for the future and offering them extended opportunities in the first team.

One area in which things might slightly differ is how they recruit players, as opposed to previous summer, when most of the players were inexperienced at the level. Although Dodds clarified that he meant experience in terms of appearances rather than necessarily age, Sunderland does feel they need to add one or two more experienced Championship players. Sunderland won’t stray from their overarching plan, but their performance in the last few months speaks for itself, and there’s a tacit understanding that the absence of important players from the starting lineup due to injury and suspension showed a lack of depth in the team. Supporters are anticipating just that as they seek to see a team assembled that can sustain a challenge for the play-offs at the very least next season. The aim is to address that this summer.

A new head coach will be appointed, and part of the summer recruitment drive will be aimed at addressing the acknowledged fact that the style of play has deteriorated significantly since Tony Mowbray’s departure. In an effort to fortify the team and eliminate what they perceived to be soft goals, Beale and Dodds both sought to rectify what they perceived to be Sunderland’s deficiencies in possession during the first half of the season. Even while Dodds in particular saw some progress in that area, it was evident that the scale had swung too far the other way by the end of the campaign, as many supporters were left feeling unimpressed with the football they were seeing. Though one would think that after the first half of the campaign, Sunderland has learned it’s better to take risks and fail than to attempt and strike a balance between the two.