Next Sunderland manager: Charismatic Daniel Stendel would liven things up but he needs right players to execute 'heavy metal football'

Almost a year ago, Hearts owner Ann Budge found the money to persuade the 46-year-old to take the reins at Tynecastle.

It took her nearly six weeks to put together a package for Stendel, but the hierarchy at the club fully believed that the charismatic German was the right man to lift the then Scottish Premiership club off the foot of the league.

His arrival came with much fanfare.

Football north of the border has not been graced by many German coaches, and his track record at Barnsley, where he took the Tykes to the English Championship with a blend of attacking, exciting football, got Hearts fans into a frenzy as they salivated at the prospect of life after Craig Levein’s turgid style.

Unfortunately for both parties, it didn’t quite go according to plan.

Judging Stendel’s time at Hearts is tricky, because he had a lot of mitigating circumstances to deal with.

He was left with an imbalanced playing pool, devoid of any quality out wide and a trio of sub-standard goalkeepers.

The bloated squad was riddled with injuries and, when the January transfer window came along, the club didn’t have the cash to truly back him. Nevertheless, some of his signings were hardly success stories.

Stendel, a former striker whose playing career took place exclusively in his homeland, likes energetic players.

His game is all about pressing – but more of that later.

He brought in Northern Ireland forward Liam Boyce, who can go down as a positive move, but winger Donis Avdijaj and midfielder Marcel Langer were flops. Toby Sibbick, a tall, athletic midfielder, was decent, but too often sidelined by a virus.

Not coronavirus, I must add, although that did not help Stendel at all.

When the pandemic closed down football in mid-March, Hearts were four points adrift of safety with just eight games left to play. It really was 50/50 as to whether they would have survived.

Stendel’s Hearts defeated Rangers twice and vanquished rivals Hibs at Easter Road, but they struggled against the “lesser” teams.

There were some galling defeats to Hamilton Accies, St Mirren and Kilmarnock.

He ripped up Hearts’ previous plans of conservative football and was extremely cavalier with his formations.

Often Hearts would leave just two defenders at the back when they went into full gegenpressing mode, and they were caught out time and time again on the counter-attack.

His last match was a 1-0 defeat at St Mirren, a week after a famous derby triumph, and those two results summed him up; capable of some big wins, but too often found wanting in the nitty-gritty of the Scottish game.

Had Hearts defeated the Saints, they would have survived relegation when the league was called on goal difference.

The German has good ideas. Fans will love the notion of his attacking, heavy metal football, but he needs the right players to execute it.

It worked at Barnsley, but it wasn’t a success in Scotland’s capital.

What many people found a little uncomfortable is that Stendel appeared reluctant to change his ways.

There was no real sign of him adapting to the Scottish game when clearly his team was getting exposed time and time again.

While far from an arrogant coach, he appeared hell-bent on imposing his style of play on a confidence-sapped squad, when perhaps some pragmatism might have worked better.

Off the pitch, Stendel is a likeable fellow.

Famous for celebratory drinks with Barnsley fans, he never got the chance to do such a thing in Edinburgh.

He’s good with the press, even if his English is a little erratic (his second language is Russian). He will stand up for his players, his club and is passionate.

His persona is very different to Phil Parkinson, and even Jack Ross. The players all spoke well of his people skills and ideas.

He was big on team bonding, taking the entire staff for a day of go-karting to try and improve morale.

A lot of people at Hearts reckon he was the right man at the wrong time.

Is he the right man for Sunderland right now? Judging by the number of turgid 1-1 draws the Black Cats chalk up and the general disdain for what’s going on at the club right now, he will liven things up on Wearside.

He has guided a team out of League One before, and would almost certainly bring in Dale Tonge as one his coaches, a trusty lieutenant from Oakwell. His assistant manager at Hearts was Jorg Sievers, a former team-mate of his at Hannover who specialises in goalkeepers.

He knows the third tier of England well, having spent the best part of a season in it and taking Barnsley back to the Championship.

He wanted to bring in players from that league to help Hearts, but could never get deals over the line.

He had a healthy rivalry with Ross when he was the manager of Sunderland and they renewed acquaintances in Scotland with Ross manager of Hibs.

What might appeal to Sunderland is that Stendel knows his next job really will make or break him.

Considering the tumult at the Stadium of Light right now, they could probably do a lot worse.

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