Sunderland Hires Advocaat as Coach for Rest of EPL Season
Sunderland hired former Netherlands manager Dick Advocaat as coach on Tuesday until the end of the season, tasked with keeping the northeast club in the English Premier League.
Sunderland made the appointment less than 24 hours after firing Gus Poyet after 17 months in charge, with the team a point above the relegation zone with nine matches to go.
"Sunderland is a big club, and I am very much looking forward to the challenge ahead," the 67-year-old Advocaat said. "We must now concentrate on Saturday at (West Ham) as a priority, and I can't wait to get started."
Advocaat has been out of work since leaving the Serbia national team job last year, but has more than three decades of experience in the dugout.
He has never managed in England before, but did spend four years at Rangers from 1998 to 2002, winning the Scottish league and cup double twice.
Advocaat has also won league titles in his homeland with PSV Eindhoven, and in Russia with Zenit Saint-Petersburg.
"Dick has an incredible CV and vast experience of managing at the very highest level," Sunderland chairman Ellis Short said. "We have one aim only now — to climb the table, and everyone is fully focused on the task ahead."
Source: Associated Press
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