Alex Neil wants to lead Sunderland in the Championship next season - but admits he needs to speak to the club hierarchy to ensure he has the backing he will need. Neil's Black Cats secured promotion from League One via the play-offs this afternoon, defeating Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley.
It means that when the new season kicks-off on July 30, Sunderland will be back at Championship level for the first time since 2017-18. There will need to be major investment in Sunderland's squad and behind-the-scenes to compete in the Championship, and that will be the main area Neil wants to discuss with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus in the coming days.
"There are a lot of discussions to take place between me and the hierarchy and the owners and all that sort of stuff, and I'm sure that will take place over the next couple of days," said Neil, who arrived at his post-match press conference clutching a can of lager.
"I know I've only been here a short period of time, but when you create a moment in time, a bond, that moment in time with players and fans it never dissipates, it never goes away.
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"I'm still remembered for taking Norwich up and I still meet Norwich fans from time to time who talk to me and tell me that winning the play-off was the best day of their life, or it was their kid's first game and how much it meant to them. Today will be the same for a lot of people.
"Whatever happens next, happens next. I'm not suggesting anything [about leaving] for a minute though. Listen, I want to be at Sunderland. I want to be here, I want to take it forward and there is massive scope for us to do that.
"But we need to understand that we're going to a new level and I know people will say 'we're not a Championship team' like I've been told a million times 'we're not a League One team', but at the end of the day there's a lot of hard work goes into that to then get you out of that level, because that level is really tough.
"It has teams coming down with parachute payments, players on £100,000-per-week that are scoring 43 goals a season - it's a tough, tough level. We just need to sit and have a chat about what we do next."
Neil took charge on Wearside in February and signed a 12-month rolling contract. He says he was always confident he could help the club achieve promotion from League One with this squad, but that it will now need to be upgraded over the summer.
He said: "It was easy for me coming to Sunderland at that point in time because I looked at the squad and thought 'yeah, with that squad I can do what is required'. I walked in the door and they said 'there's your squad, win games' and I said 'no problem'.
"But when transfer windows open up, when you are going to the next level and you aspire to be higher than that level, that's very different. There's got to be a lot of work, a lot of investment, a lot of facets that make you competitive in the next league.
"Like anybody, if you are doing a job then you want the tools to do that job and I am no different."
He added: "When you take the job, you have to have the belief that you can carry it through. The last thing I wanted to do was to drop into League One and fail.
"Bear in mind that I took a club that wasn't down at the bottom end of the table, so when you take a club that is higher up the table, how much scope have you actually got? It would have been quite easy to pass on this one and wait for an easier job further down the line.
"But I was waiting on something that was really going to intrigue me and test me. I've never been scared of failing, I've never been scared of putting myself out there and thinking that I can get the job done.
"This was the biggest test of all because of the size of the club, the expectation on the club, and also the number of people who have tried before me."
Neil celebrated with his players in front of the 46,500-strong Sunderland contingent at full-time, after Elliot Embleton's first half strike and Ross Stewart's goal late in the second half earned the win. It was Sunderland's first play-off success at the seventh time of asking, in a run that dates back 35 years.
And it was also the first time Sunderland fans had been at Wembley to see their team win since 1973, with eight defeats at the national stadium since while the one victory - in the EFL Trophy in March last year - came during the Covid pandemic when games were played behind-closed-doors.
Neil said: "When you come to a club like Sunderland, people love a fallen giant don't they? They love to stick the boot into a fallen giant - you shouldn't be where you are, you should have done this, this is rubbish, that's rubbish.
"So it was such a challenge for me to come here because it has hoovered up managers over the last four or five years. It's been tough for people.
"But I've always had confidence and belief that I could come to a big club. I came to Norwich from Hamilton, which is a huge jump in terms of everything - level, infrastructure, what have you. And I felt that when I left Preston that I needed to go and show everybody again what I think I can do, but if I'm being brutally honest you can only do that with really good players, with a really good squad.
"The fans and the backing that we've received over the last three months has been incredible. I'm not the one that's dancing around, but that doesn't mean I'm miserable: I'm just content.
"What I am today is extremely satisfied that I have been able to deliver so much to so many people, and it really matters to them. That for me is the most important thing, because it has been tough for this club for a number of years.
"You need a slice of fortune as well, but fortune in any sport goes to the people who practice the most and work behind the scenes and put the hard yards in.
"We work extremely hard and that's probably why I'm so sombre - because I'm so confident because of the hard work we've put in, I know we can't do any more to help the lads perform. Credit to them, they were brilliant."
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