CAST your eyes over yesterday’s newspapers or type ‘Sunderland manager’ into Google and you will soon understand that taking over at the Stadium of Light has not proven to be the most appealing job for those being seriously considered by Ellis Short.

Sean Dyche and David Moyes are among those to have distanced themselves from the post, while Sam Allardyce has major reservations about succeeding Dick Advocaat and Harry Redknapp has been critical of the role. There are sure to be more too, all wary of taking on a challenge capable of tarnishing their reputation.

As Sunderland search for a fifth boss in just two-and-a-half years, you can hardly blame them for having doubts; especially when an experienced head coach like Advocaat leaves so early in to the new season citing his team was “not good enough”, nor was another relegation battle his “cup of tea”.

The leading contenders for the job might not have the heart for the battle either, even if there is an extensive list of applicants already interested in stepping in.

But the club’s owner Short, a clever American businessman who has not made his millions from doing too many things wrong, should have learned from the mistakes which have been made. If that means a boardroom reshuffle or scrapping the sporting director model – as Lee Congerton serves his notice while helping to find the new man - then so be it.

The way things are done at the Stadium of Light must change and Short is open-minded on what is needed. It could be that the next manager actually carries greater power than those before him – if they ever get to the stage where they sit down with the chairman to find out.

Both Roy Keane, who left the Stadium of Light because of his relationship with Short, and Redknapp have questioned the way the club is being ran in the last 48 hours. But that should not prevent candidates from putting their name in the frame, especially as Short knows how important it is to get his next move right.

Sunderland have huge debts. The last set of accounts published earlier this year for the 2013/14 season stated how the debt had risen by £15m to £94m, with chief executive Margaret Byrne pointing out that the new TV deal provides a chance for the club to “get the books in order”.

That is why Sunderland need to stay up. From next summer it is estimated that even the team which finishes bottom of the Premier League in May 2017 will have earned at least £150m just for playing in the top-flight.

Even with the prospect of greater parachute payments for relegated clubs, Short is well aware how important such a sum of money is after years of struggling to get the finances in order. Short cannot afford for the eighth manager he has worked with to fail.

That should not, though, be enough to put off a manager looking to get back into football.

Sunderland are only spared bottom spot in the Premier League because Newcastle United have an inferior goal difference, but they do have attacking talents capable of recording better results before the transfer window opens in January; highlighted by Saturday’s brilliant first half against West Ham.

Just because Advocaat didn’t fancy the fight after years of competing for titles across Europe it shouldn’t mean the role is ignored by everyone else.

It is a big job, and it will be a hugely difficult one for the man who does take command, but the prospect of taking over Sunderland Football Club should still be enough to get a strong-minded, confident and ambitious manager buzzing with excitement and full of intention.

Keane and Peter Reid remain well loved on Wearside, by the majority of supporters, for the way they embraced their time in the North-East and led revivals out of the Football League by securing promotion to the Premier League.

A Sunderland boss has never been able to leave boasting the same rapport with the fans since, but that does not mean it will never happen again – and why should the next appointment not be that man to succeed if he is given the freedom to do the job his way.

Allardyce, or whoever it ends up being, would be starting from a difficult position, but they would rather take over a Sunderland team just eight games into a Premier League season rather than down in the Championship like Keane and Reid once did.

Sunderland have a huge stadium, fanatical fans, a wealthy owner playing in the richest league in the world, so that should be enough to persuade Short’s list of candidates to want the job rather than run away from it.