Chris Coleman slams Ellis Short and reveals the brutal way he was told of his Sunderland sacking

Chris Coleman has lifted the lid on his time at Sunderland

The former Wales manager was tempted to the Stadium of Light in November 2017, but failed to keep the side in the Championship after a tricky campaign.

But despite that relegation, Coleman has no regrets over his time on Wearside, with his only criticism of Short - a man who he is still yet to speak with, let alone meet.

It was something the former Fulham boss had not seen in football, and an arrangement which left him ‘disappointed’.

“Sunderland was 100 per cent the right club,” he said, speaking to the Keys & Gray Show.

“The chairman of Sunderland was 100 per cent the wrong chairman.

“As a manager or a coach or even as a player, before you signed a contract you’d meet the chairman. I’ve still never had a conversation with him - not a text or an email.

“When we arrived we needed some help, and we got completely bombed.

“From day one when we arrived - absolutely no dialogue, nothing. That really disappointed me.

“It’s the right club and I would do it again, but only if it was a different chairman.”

Having poured a considerable amount of money into the club during their Premier League days, Short tightened the purse strings after relegation to the Championship.

For Coleman, that led to a tricky winter transfer window - as some of his better players departed.

“It was going to take us two, three or four windows maybe, to turn it around,” he admitted.

“We needed to get a lot of players out, a lot of players in - but you can only do that if you have the backing of the chairman.

“I never met the chairman. We got in in November, by the middle of January we had lost five of the starting eleven players.

“We were in desperate need anyway to add to what we got, but we got no money. Not even for loans.

“He completely left us out in the cold and I was sad about that.

Coleman is yet to watch either season of Sunderland ‘Til I Die but was asked if he had any dealings with the club’s current regime.

The 49-year-old was dismissed just hours before Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven’s takeover of the club was announced, but claims he was not told of his sacking by any of the parties involved in the deal to purchase the Black Cats.

“He [Donald] sacked me before he’d even sat down to ask me what I thought,” said Coleman.

“I was told through a third party that it was the end. We were out.”

Coleman went on to manage Chinese Super League side Hebei China Fortune, but is now out of work having departed the club in May 2019.