Niall Quinn urges Sunderland owner to hire Dick Advocaat long term

Niall Quinn has urged Sunderland owner Ellis Short to give Dick Advocaat the manager's job long term.

Dutchman Advocaat, hired last month until the end of the season to save Sunderland from relegation, made a huge step towards Premier League safety with his first victory in charge on Sunday - a 1-0 win over local rivals Newcastle.

Sky Sports football expert and former Sunderland chairman Quinn told Super Sunday that Advocaat is a different prospect to former bosses Gus Poyet and Paolo Di Canio and he should be given the chance to put a long-term plan in place for the club.

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“The next man in is the most important now," Quinn said. "Sunderland have been hanging on as a football club over the last few years and whoever it is has to be given a project to create something other than this yo-yo club.

“I hope it is Dick Advocaat because he doesn’t have to talk his way through everything, with the experience he has. He’s been there and done it.

“He doesn’t have to make himself known to the world like the last two managers did. Advocaat just goes in there and does it and he seems to have got that level of desire and passion in there already.

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“Ellis Short would kill me for saying this, but if he adds his tactical nous and keeps this team up then I would be breaking the bank to make sure he stays and give him a different type of tenure than the previous guys. He could be the man to make a three-to-five-year plan out of it.”

Sunderland’s crucial victory at the Stadium of Light, thanks to a wonder-strike from January signing Jermain Defoe, lifted them three places and three points above the relegation zone with seven games left.

And Quinn, who played over 200 times for Sunderland in six years at the club, believes they will have a new-found confidence from a momentous derby victory.

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“You’re always anxious when you’re fighting relegation and the last two games away to Arsenal and Chelsea especially make you anxious that it has to be done before,” he said.

“But there’ll be a new-found confidence in that dressing room and they’ll relish that because they’ve regrouped now. The joy on their faces and the reaction from the fans gives you energy.

“I hope they keep showing the same collective perseverance as they did today because they didn’t have that before and for some time.”