Sunderland fan pundit issues Tony Mowbray verdict amid reports over his future

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sunderland are reportedly weighing up potentially replacing Tony Mowbray this summer.

The 59-year-old still has another 12 months remaining on his current contract at the Stadium of Light.

However, reports have emerged suggesting that may be cut short despite a successful first season in charge of the Black Cats.

Should Sunderland look to replace Tony Mowbray?

FLW’s Sunderland fan pundit Jack Austwicke has labelled the reports “weird” and believes it would be a strange decision to replace Mowbray.

“It’s weird, it’s really weird for me,” Austwicke told Football League World. “I’ll be honest with you, some of the reports I’ve seen I think are just quite lazy, lazy journalism, lazy reporting.

“It’s so easy to say ‘oh they’ve got this new model, they want to keep the ball rolling with young players,’ so that’ll mean they want a young, expressive manager. Tony Mowbray is that just without the young.

“If he was 20 years younger and was called Toni, there would be Premier League clubs looking all over for him because of the type of football he plays. He suits us perfectly.

“He’s had an incredible season, been one of the best managers in the Championship, and has massively overachieved with limited resources. I don’t see any reason why we would get rid of him and bring someone else in right now. There’s no reason to do that.

“He’s a top manager and I think we could do well for us next season whatever league we are in.

“Weird reports. I hope there’s no truth in it.”

Mowbray has overseen a top six finish with Sunderland, with the team holding a 2-1 aggregate lead over Luton Town in their play-off semi-final first leg.

The two teams meet again tonight at Kenilworth Road to determine who will be the first team to reach this month’s Wembley final for a place in the Premier League.

Does Tony Mowbray deserve to have his Sunderland future in doubt?

Mowbray entered the team suddenly at the end of August in difficult circumstances but has done excellently with what he’s been given.

This is a young, inexperienced Sunderland side that has dealt with serious injuries all campaign.

A key figure such as Ross Stewart has barely featured all year but the team has continued to thrive despite his absence.

Mowbray deserves a lot of credit for getting this squad this far and it would be incredibly harsh to change the coach over the summer.