Alex Neil is comfortable with his contractual situation at Sunderland and on the same page as the club in terms of this summer's recruitment plans, according to sporting director Kristjaan Speakman. Neil guided Sunderland to promotion via the play-offs at Wembley last weekend, securing a return to the Championship next season following a four-year absence.
The Scot has earned the respect and admiration of supporters for the job he has done since he arrived in February on a 12-month rolling contract. When asked about his future in the immediate aftermath of the play-off final win, Neil made it clear that he wants to stay at the club but also said he would be holding talks with the hierarchy in the coming days to ensure that he will be given the backing he needs in the Championship.
Those discussions have taken place this week before key personnel departed for their summer breaks, and Speakman says both the club and Neil are happy with the situation. "Alex has been an incredible part of our journey since February, and he should get every accolade that he has been getting - both internally and externally - for the performance of the team, because to get to the final position that we got to took an incredible effort," said Speakman.
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"No-one has ever had to achieve that number of points to achieve those [play-off] positions before. Alex is a fundamental part of what we are doing, and while I get the whole contractual debate it is a matter between us and him, and as long as both parties are happy with the situation we can continue to work."
Of the contract specifically, Speakman added: "At the minute, we have an agreement in place. It's like anything, we are always reviewing all elements. At the present time it is all-systems go and we will continue to make sure that every member of staff is happy.
"We want to make sure that Alex feels comfortable where he is, and he is [comfortable]. I don't think we need to get into the intricacies, I think people have got to be confident that we will make the best possible decisions we can for Sunderland.
"We have got a Championship manager, which we knew back when he was appointed, because we wanted to be ready for this moment."
With doubts over in which division Sunderland would be competing persisting right up to the moment they won the play-off final, plans and budgets had to be drawn up for both League One and the Championship but now the club can proceed with Plan A. Speakman said: "We've got loads of clarity around how we are working and what the strategy is, but naturally it takes a big step up when you go to the Championship because it is a completely different entity.
"Alex has managed in the Championship, he understands what the requirements are, and it's about how we transition to that. I think we've got really good alignment over how we are going to do that - I spent all Sunday night and Monday morning chatting to Alex about that, and we see a lot of it from a very similar perspective.
"We just have to go and execute it. We hadn't really had any discussions about the Championship until Saturday afternoon because we had to be respectful of the fact that we had Sheffield Wednesday in the play-off semi-final, and Wycombe in the final, and they were tough games.
"My job is to plan for the future, while his job was to win those games, and that's where the balance is between the head coach implementing what we are trying to do and getting the team into the best position. Then there's myself, Stuart [Harvie, the club's head of recruitment], [chief executive] Steve Davison, and everyone else in our management team planning ahead so that we could turn up on Monday and say 'right, this is where we are at, we're not starting from scratch'."
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