A big Sunderland update has emerged on their efforts to find a successor to Lee Johnson at the Stadium of Light...

What's the talk?

Kristjaan Speakman has revealed the stage at which the Black Cats are at in terms of finding their new head coach, following the 2-1 defeat to Doncaster on Saturday.

He told Sunderland's official Twitter account: "At the moment, we are putting together that shortlist."

Fuming

Sunderland fans will surely be fuming with this news as it suggests that there has been a lack of progress in the last week. Johnson was sacked after the 6-0 defeat to Bolton and Speakman's comments indicate that they are still not close to appointing his successor.

FFC published an article earlier this week suggesting that fans would be buzzing with an appointment prior to the Doncaster match due to the importance of the game. Every match is now crucial with the club vying for automatic promotion in League One and they could not afford to waste their time as it may well result in adverse results that affect their chances of finishing in the top two.

They failed to bring a head coach in ahead of the clash and ended up losing 2-1 to bottom-of-the-league Doncaster at the weekend. This shows that our prediction was true that a lack of progress on the manager front could lead to performances on the pitch faltering and this now increases the emphasis on the need for speed in Speakman's search.

Fans will, therefore, be fuming that he has said they are still putting together a shortlist one week on from the decision to let Johnson go. They have seemingly failed to quickly identify their ideal candidate to replace the ex-Bristol City coach and the result against the Dons was them paying the price for their failure.

The supporters will be frustrated by the time it is taking to bring a boss in, with their grip on their automatic promotion dream loosening with each defeat.

Why sack a manager if you have no clear plan in place with an idea of who you want to bring in? The lack of progress this week suggests that it was a knee-jerk decision after the hammering against Bolton and the fans may see it the same way, which is why they will be angry with this situation.

Perhaps that is harsh and they may well have been unlucky in their negotiations this week - it is impossible to say. The important thing is that Speakman works hard to resolve the head coach position as quickly as possible in the coming days.

AND in other news, "At the moment": Big SAFC managerial update emerges that'll leave fans fuming...