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Sunderland will consider REAPPOINTING sacked Chris Coleman as boss.

Businessmen Stewart Donald completed his takeover at the Stadium of Light on Monday and revealed he will pay £40m to take the club debt free from Ellis Short.

Donald will appoint a new boss by the weekend and has admits Coleman would be on his list of “three or four” candidates. St Mirren boss Jack Ross and Michael Appleton are candidates.

Ex-Wales chief Coleman left the Black Cats three weeks ago - fired as Short cleared the decks, and liabilities, ahead of selling up.

Coleman is of interest to the new regime, but would have to take a pay cut on his past deal, to sensationally become manager for the second time.

(Image: Getty Images Europe) (Image: Getty)

Donald is pursuing three candidates in the next few days, and wants and announcement this weekend.

The insurance multi-millionaire has made a substantial down payment on the £40m price and will pay the rest over the next two years.

Ellis Short has taken “security”on the £35m Premier League parachute payment due next season to guarantee he gets his money, after also wiping clear £160m of debt.

Donald has pledged to “give 100 per cent” to revive the club with a new culture or “hard work” to reflect the values of fans on Wearside.

His right-hand man, Charlie Methven, said on Monday: “The p***-take party stops now.

“People will come here now on an appropriate salary and because they want to play for one of the best clubs in the world. The organisation has been used to failure for too long. We have to be ready to be successful again."

Donald explained: “It wasn’t us (who sacked Coleman), and I wouldn’t rule out potentially talking to Chris. We’ve got one week, we believe, to get ourselves organised. From a fans’ perspective, Chris is obviously the visual one.

“What Ellis Short has done through this whole process is that he has tidied up the business as best he can to reduce the liabilities moving forward. He has decided that Chris is one of those, and that is up to him. That’s absolutely nothing to do with us, and we wouldn’t necessarily exclude Chris from the process of arranging a new manager. It was completely and utterly down to Ellis.

“Potentially, we would look to speak to Chris. There’s a view of whether or not League One is Chris’ domain, but when we’ve looked at the list of people who have applied, and you say you want to speak to three or four people, I think Chris would potentially be in those three or four.

“There hasn’t been any contact, but we haven’t been able to do anything up to now. You get a vibe and a feel from the footballing industry (about who might be interested), and there are obviously lots of people who have applied and we’ve looked at those.

(Image: Offside) (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

“We’ve got a list of people that have applied that we would be interested in, and we’ve also got another idea about who might be interested in the Sunderland job. Then we have our own people who we think could do a job for Sunderland. But I wouldn’t exclude Chris Coleman from that.”

Donald, who becomes the sole shareholder, hopes to attract more investment.

“I have not taken a £40m hit to make money. I’ve done it because I enjoy football,” he said.

“The new culture will be hard work, value for money, not taking the mickey. Getting 100 per cent, giving 100 per cent.

“The potential is massive. The club has not been looked after as well as it might. Now we want to be back in the Premier League in two years.”