Gustavo Poyet admits he would like to one day return to Sunderland as manager

The current Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson may not be the most popular figure on Wearside today, after yesterday’s shambolic home defeat to the MK Dons.

That has led to debate over who the next Sunderland manager could be, should Parkinson leave his position, and one former manager has said he has unfinished business with the club.

Gus Poyet, speaking on the Speaking Sunderland podcast, said he would like to return to the Stadium of Light as he still believes he can change the club.

Although he left the club in 2015, Poyet says his due to his relationship with the fans and his belief that he can still achieve something important with the club, he could envisage a return to Sunderland:

Yes, I said it already a few months ago. Yes, of course because there are things that are still possible to change. Just to clarify because I always said it, right now you’ve got a manager, Phil Parkinson, he’s doing very well.

It’s a different situation but it’s something that...when you’ve been in a club and you’ve been so close to people and then everyone watches the series Sunderland ‘Til I Die, and then the first thing they do, they call you and they ask you “You’ve been there and it confirmed things that you already told them” because that’s what Sunderland ‘Til I Die does, confirmed to people things that I told them when I left Sunderland.

It’s like you want to go back because it’s typical South American passion, you know, the fans. So that relationship that we made with the fans, even if it didn’t finish in the best way, I am still thinking that it’s possible to do something important there and it’s easier when you know how much it [the football club] means to fans. How important it is to the city, so yeah, of course.

You can listen to the full Speaking Sunderland podcast with Gus Poyet by pressing play on the player below: