'He's massively respected' - Dan Neil welcomes Mike Dodds return as Sunderland head coach

Key Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil says every player in the squad will be happy to see Mike Dodds in charge again.
'He's massively respected' - Dan Neil welcomes Mike Dodds return as Sunderland head coach
'He's massively respected' - Dan Neil welcomes Mike Dodds return as Sunderland head coach /

Dan Neil says Mike Dodds is 'massively respected' by the Sunderland squad as he welcomed his appointment as interim head coach. 

Dodds will take charge of Sunderland against Swansea City this weekend and he will hold the position until the end of the season at least following the sacking of Michael Beale. 

It will be his third spell as Sunderland head coach and second this season alone, and the first one certainly went well with him winning two of his three games in charge - both against teams in the top five in the Championship.  

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Neil will surely play a key role again in the Sunderland midfield this weekend, and he says Dodds commands the respect of every one of the players. 

“He's a massively respected figure within the dressing room, “Neil told safc.com. 

“I think everyone knows how influential he's been over the last few years and the rise of us up through League One, last year in the playoffs and a lot this year as well.

“All the boys respect him, all the boys respect his beliefs and his tactics and, you know, we're looking forward to going out on Saturday and doing what he wants to do.

“We've got full belief that if we do that, we can come away with something good on Saturday and build some momentum to finish the season off.”

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Michael Graham
MICHAEL GRAHAM

Michael Graham is a professional sports writer with more than ten years of industry experience. After pursuing football writing by helping establish the Roker Report Sunderland AFC fansite, Michael moved to Planet Sport to cover football.  Michael has since worked on many of the sports sites within the Planet Sport network, including Football365, TEAMtalk and Planet Football before leaving to join 90min. As well as football, Michael is an accomplished tennis writer and has been regularly featured on Tennishead, TennisBuzz and Tennis365. It is football that is his first love, though, with Sunderland AFC his particular passion.  Contact: michael@buzzpublishing.co.uk