• Former Leicester City manager kept the Foxes up last season • Sam Allardyce still appeals to the US owner at Stadium of Light

Sunderland have spoken to Nigel Pearson about their managerial vacancy but the former Leicester City manager is not the only candidate under consideration and the club are willing to take their time to identify Dick Advocaat’s replacement.

Having been sacked by Leicester in the summer, Pearson has the advantage of being readily available and did preside over a successful fight against relegation last spring. As a former Middlesbrough captain and Newcastle United first-team coach, the 52-year-old also understands the north-east psyche and is eager to return to the technical area. At this stage though, with alternatives being sounded out, he remains something of a backstop option.

Pearson was approached by Lee Congerton – Sunderland’s sporting director, who is working out his notice after resigning – but the overall manager hunt is being driven by Ellis Short, the club’s owner, and it is thought Sam Allardyce is favoured by the American financier.

While Short would be willing to dismantle Sunderland’s director of football system – something Pearson would happily work within – in order to accommodate Allardyce, it is unclear whether the former West Ham manager, who is currently in Spain and about to embark on a tour publicising his autobiography, really wants the job.

Although some of Allardyce’s advocates believe the former Newcastle manager could be talked into accepting the challenge, Pearson has been given an opportunity to present both his case for succeeding Advocaat and his plans for rebuilding a squad in urgent need of root-and-branch reform.

While David Moyes has indicated, for the moment at least, that he is not interested in swapping Real Sociedad for a team without a Premier League win this season, other contenders, including Burnley’s Sean Dyche, remain part of the wider equation.

Dyche, whose side are in the Championship play-off spots, is highly regarded by Sunderland’s board but is understood to be cool on the prospect of swapping Turf Moor for Wearside. Moreover Sunderland may be deterred by the prospect of having to pay Burnley significant compensation.

Although Congerton knows Brendan Rodgers well from their time at Chelsea it is unclear whether Sunderland might make a pitch for the manager newly sacked by Liverpool.

One man who will definitely not be heading to Wearside, though, is Harry Redknapp. “Me the next Sunderland boss? No chance! They were horrendous at Bournemouth the other day,” said the former QPR and Tottenham manager. “I’m not in the running and I don’t know whether Sam [Allardyce] wants it.

“Sam’s done a fantastic job wherever he’s been, but he’ll look at it and think: ‘Can I keep these up?’ And if he thinks he can’t, he won’t take it. He won’t want to get relegated.

“Every year they seem to be in the same position and they’ve not recruited well. They spent decent money again but I saw them play at Bournemouth the other day and they were an absolute disaster. Bournemouth wiped the floor with them.

“The problem now is the manager gets the blame all the time. But who signs the players? Why don’t people look at whoever is bringing the players in? It’s a good club, the chairman is a nice man, I’ve met him a couple of times. But whoever takes it has a tough job on their hands. There’s a lot of hard work to be done there.”

Roy Keane is not surprised to see his old club in such chaos. “Sunderland’s a brilliant, brilliant club,” said the Republic of Ireland’s assistant manager, who departed after falling out with Short in December 2008. “But people in the background probably need to have a good look at themselves. If they’d let me alone, I’d probably still be there.”