Sunderland boss Alex Neil has reportedly been given permission to talk to Stoke City about their managerial vacancy. That development - reported by Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie - comes after Neil was installed last night as the bookies' favourite to take over at Stoke.
And it would explain why Sunderland's scheduled media preview ahead of tomorrow's home game against Norwich City was delayed this morning and eventually postponed. Neil was due to speak to the media at 9am but, after a delay of around half-an-hour, Neil had still not appeared although ChronicleLive was told that he was at the training ground and in a meeting which meant he was running late.
At 9.45am a member of the club's media team said that the preview would be moved to 2pm but, when asked by ChronicleLive, confirmed at that stage it would still be conducted by Neil. Neil took training at the Academy of Light as normal this morning and it is possible that further talks will be held in which Sunderland will try to keep hold of the Scot.
