The major questions that remain unanswered at Sunderland as head coach search reaches landmark

Sunderland's search for a new head coach reached a significant landmark on Wednesday, with it now being 100 days since Michael Beale's departure was confirmed and the process to hire his permanent replacement began.

With a resolution seemingly still not imminent, there remain a huge number of questions about the club's directions and plans moving forward at the end of a disappointing season. Here, we look at some of the big issues and the main questions that remain unanswered as a result of the ongoing search...

What's happening with the search for a new head coach and who will it be?

For most fans, this is understandably the most pressing concern and top of the list of what needs to be resolved. Sunderland's search for a new head coach has now reached the 100-day mark without resolution. So what's behind the delay? It has been widely understood from the initial stages of the search that Sunderland's thinking was not only to give themselves time and space to conduct a rigorous process following Michael Beale's troubled tenure, but also to broaden the pool of potential candidates by opening it up to those reluctant or unable to leave their current posts in the middle of the campaign.

With just the European finals to be played, however, there has still been no breakthrough. A number of potential options, including Danny Rohl, have settled their futures. Will Still remains the overwhelming favourites with the bookmakers and crucially, remains available following his departure from Stade de Reims. Though Still had some interest from Norwich City, but they are now on the brink of appointing FC Nordsjaelland head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup. Still has previously been a contender for the role and has backers within the Sunderland hierarchy, and is known to be keen to return to the UK this summer and so is keen on the vacancy in principle. There is thought to have been dialogue in recent weeks but less clear is the extent to which the Black Cats are still exploring other options.

At this stage the delay is unlikely to have much of a detrimental impact on next season, particularly given the fairly limited role Sunderland's head coach plays in recruitment anyway. More damaging is the impact the ongoing delay has on the mood on Wearside, where the sense of drift and apathy was already growing after a truly dismal end to the Championship campaign.

What lessons have been learned from last season?

The ongoing search for a new head coach means there has been no dialogue from the footballing side since the end of the campaign, other than to confirm the retained list and those leaving the club this summer as a result. As such, a number of key questions have not been addressed about what has or hasn't been learned from the second half of the campaign in which Sunderland's play-off push fell away in dramatic circumstances.

What lessons did the club take from the process which led to Michael Beale being appointed, a decision was clearly an error in judgement? How has that guided the current process to ensure that there will be no repeat, or at least ensure the prospect of a repeat is significantly reduced? What reflections have been made on two transfer windows which saw a number of players arrive at the club, but make very little impact on the first team over the course of the season? Why did the club appear to pivot away from the front-foot style of play that had so inspired fans in the previous year? Up to this point, there has been no accountability for any of that and so as a result, nothing to give supporters real optimism that it will be corrected in the future.

What tweaks will be made to the club's current strategy as a result of last season's disappointing finish?

Though the head coach quite rightly dominates the agenda, that position is only one part of the wider footballing picture at Sunderland and perhaps the most important question is whether Sunderland are ready to make any meaningful alterations to the broader strategy.

It's clear that there will be no huge change next season, Sunderland are steadfastly committed to their policy of either promoting  young players from within or recruiting them from elsewhere, and then giving them significant playing opportunities. They will continue to field one of if not the youngest team in the division next season and actually, this is something supporters are largely in favour of. The question is whether that strategy was pushed too far to the extreme last season, when the team so often seemed to lack leadership and experience of the rigours of the Championship. For much of the closing stages of the campaign, the team and the club as a result appeared rudderless. There'll be no radical overhaul this summer, but will the changes be made that could help recapture the balance the sides of the previous two campaigns enjoyed? Will some flexibility be shown, for example, to improve Sunderland's presence in the final third?

What's the ambition for next season?

Sunderland's ambition is to return to the Premier League by the end of the 2025/26 campaign, but this season looks to have been a significant setback given how far short the team fell off their previous finish. So what's the ambition for the next campaign and what will be done to try and correct it?