Phillips is ‘perfect’ for Black Cats
DANNY Higginbotham believes Sunderland should turn to club hero Kevin Phillips as new manager, and bring in Peter Reid to assist him.
Phillips has ambitions to one day step into management and is currently serving as a coach at Derby County having previously worked at Leicester City.
He’s admitted in the past that he’d love to manage the Black Cats one day after becoming a terrace hero during his six years at the club.
And Higginbotham believes that he’d be the perfect man to lift the gloom of the fans right now.
The Sky Sports pundit told the Sunderland Echo: “What’s important is that the manager who comes in gets the fans on side. It is a big appointment, simple as that.
“Imagine the uplift if you had someone like Peter Reid there to oversee someone like Kevin Phillips, a young manager who wants a crack at it.”
When Phillips said he’d be interested one day, he did say that the timing would have to be right.
In the summer Phillips distanced himself from the role saying he was happy at Derby, but he is known to be growing keener on launching his managerial career.
Reid, meanwhile, who was manager at the Stadium of Light during Phillips’ playing days, has been out of management since taking charge of Mumbai City FC in 2014.
In 2016 he spent a few months at Bolton to assist interim manager Jimmy Phillips until the end of the season but couldn’t help stop them being relegated from the Championship.
This season he’s also taken an advisory role at Wigan Athletic, with boss Paul Cook praising his help and influence.