Will Still, Sunderland and the head coach search: What happened and what has to happen next

Sunderland's long pursuit of Will Still, we can now say with a fair degree of certainty, is finally at end.

You may already have your opinion on what went wrong or who is to blame but what now seems inarguable is that we are now beyond the point where he could take the reins with any convincing sense of unity. We may never truly now the full truth of what has happened here, a story that is probably forever destined to be marked by claim and counter claim. But we can establish some likely truths, as we begin to try and build a picture of where it is Sunderland go from here.

It is clear that Still, at some stage over the course of this week, withdrew from the running to be Sunderland's next head coach, having been a strong contender following Tony Mowbray's dismissal and having then re-emerged as the obvious frontrunner following his departure from Stade de Reims in early May. What led to that decision is, at this stage at least, a greater source of contention. Reports early on Friday evening said that Still was reluctant to take the job amid concerns over staffing and investment. Supporters may not have been hugely surprised to hear this, given that Sunderland's budgetary discipline is now very well known and that it has already been made clear that the new head coach will, one addition aside, have to work with the existing backroom staff. Sources close to Sunderland countered this, however, by saying that Still had agreed to the project and the job in principle late last week - with all of those parameters (or constraints, depending on your perspective) in place. What happens next may well be instructive. Sunderland sources believe that the moment everything changed was when RC Lens accelerated their interest in Still this week, at which point they believe their favoured candidate started to go cold on the Wearside vacancy. It is now widely expected that Still will take that vacancy when it becomes available, with current head coach Franck Heisse on the brink of replacing Francesco Farioli at OGC Nice. If Still does assume that role, then that will add some context to what has happened over the last week - the highly-rated young coach taking on a prestigious position that brings with it the chance to impress in continental competition and a top-tier league at a club with loftier ambitions than his previous employer. Sunderland felt their patience in pursuit of the right candidate was on the brink of bearing fruit, only to be denied by circumstances ultimately out of their control.

All the same, it undoubtedly leaves question marks over Sunderland's structure and way of working. It is a club that talks often of its succession planning, both in terms of players on the pitch and staff off it. That is now almost impossible to square with the reality of what has happened since the club's ownership made the high-risk and hugely controversial decision to dismiss Mowbray in December, a head coach who was clearly outperforming his budget while fielding one of the most aggressive, enjoyable to watch Sunderland team in a generation. Louis-Dreyfus spoke then of ushering in a new era of high-performance culture behind the scenes at the Academy of Light, but then found that Still and other potential candidates (including the currently heavily linked with the role Rene Maric) were impossible to recruit in the middle of the campaign. Michael Beale was hired instead, a decision that did not improve results but also saw that playing style quickly begin to disintegrate. The decision was then made not to hire a permanent successor to Beale in February, which ultimately all but ended any realistic hopes of a play-off pursuit. The logic then was that it allow the club to right that wrong and appoint a high-calibre candidate in the summer, yet they have once again now clearly failed to land their preferred candidate. Regardless on your views of Still, whether he would actually have been the right hire or whether Sunderland have been unlucky with his decision not take the job at the final hurdle, it's a huge setback for a hierarchy that has taken huge pride in rebuilding the club's reputation from being widely derided as something of a basket case. It's also impossible to ignore the wider questions it raises over its wider strategy and structure, given that the last three head coaches have all voices significant concerns over its prospects of delivering a promotion to the Premier League.

To say that the pressure to deliver a high-calibre candidate is now on is an understatement. From the beginning of this process, from the moment that Still unexpectedly became available as a free agent, sources have made clear that they felt there was every chance he would ultimately go elsewhere. Even when the deal appeared to be nearing a successful conclusion late last week, there was an understanding that Still may yet have other options on the table. As such, the word has been that there are other options firmly in play. That while Still undoubtedly emerged as the preferred candidate and was ultimately offered the job, there were other figures on a final shortlist that were seen as suitable for the job. Deliver that, and Sunderland may be able to start moving forward from another debilitating episode of what has become a bitterly disappointing year. There is still much to be optimistic about at Sunderland, a hugely gifted young team that for a long time overachieved and in some style. From the moment of Mowbray's departure however, a decision that seems to have been guided in no small part by a belief in Still's potential, the progress slowed and then seemed to start heading backwards. It now needs decisive action to set the club back on the right course.