BOTD: MIKE DODDS

On this day in 1986, three time interim head coach of Sunderland, Mike Dodds, was born.

Mike began his coaching career at 18, joining Coventry, ew, as a youth coach whilst acquiring his coaching badges.

After seeing the light and getting away from Coventry he headed to Birmingham’s academy where he has since been credited with playing a large part in developing eventual top flight players, such as Nathan Redmond, Demarai Gray and of course the Bellingham brothers.

Following on from over a decade at Birmingham, Doddsy headed up north to Wearside as head of individual player development. He was reportedly one of the key factors (as well as Kristjaan Speakman) in Sunderland signing Jobe Bellingham from Birmingham too, and we’ve certainly reaped the rewards of that one.

Aside from bringing in Jobe, and helping nurture the depth of talent at the Academy Of Light that we have seen come into the first team effortlessly over the past couple of seasons, Dodds was pushed into the hot seat of interim head coach on three separate occasions.  

The first time he was made interim boss was after Lee Johnson was rightfully given the boot during our League One spell, we lost both games 2-1, one at home against Doncaster, the other away at Cheltenham.

The next time he was in charge of setting the lads up was after Tony Mowbray was sacked. This time in the Championship, in three games he picked up six points out a potential nine. We had back to back home games against promotion hopefuls West Brom and Leeds, followed by a trip to Ashton gate against Bristol City. Against West Brom we won 2-1, and then came the biggest test which was Leeds. Dodds had us set up in a different way to how we usually set up, operating with a back three/five and perhaps that caught Leeds off guard as we grabbed an unlikely 1-0 win with the only goal of the game coming from Jobe. We then followed that up by falling to a 1-0 defeat to Bristol.

After that, we brought in Michael Beale and the less said about him the better. He was quickly dispatched and Dodds was given control of the squad until the end of the season as we began to fall down the table all the way to 16th. This spell wasn’t as exciting as the previous one, but at that time all we needed was some stability in the dug out whilst the club took their time to find the right candidate for the following season. Despite it being a poor run, which saw us lose eight games, draw three and win two, it's been said by the players that the lessons learned from that experience helped them for the 24/25 season.

We spent a long time reviewing our options and brought in the footballing scientist that is Regis Le Bris, with Dodds remaining on as assistant head coach, passing on his knowledge of the Lads to the new boss. We were enjoying a great first campaign under Regis and people were taking notice.

Wycombe needed a new head coach and thanks to his pedigree of working well with young players, they decided that Dodds was their man and they brought him in during the run-in. Our results and performances following his departure had seemed to tail off as we fell further away from the top three in the Championship, with some thinking it had to do with Dodds no longer being here. That said, we had essentially claimed a play-off spot so the priority clearly shifted to conserving the squad ahead of the play-offs - successfully!

Wycombe and Dodds also secured a play off spot of their own in League One, but they were knocked out of the semis by Charlton, who went on to win the final and gain promotion to the Championship. Things didn't work out at Wycombe for Dodds, who in an interview with ALS admitted that he's probaly better suited to being an assistant manager where he's able to focus on pure coaching and tactics. In January 2026 he followed Matt Bloomfield to Oxford United, where he is assistant manager but unfortunately the coaching staff were unble to prevent Oxford's relegation to League One. Now, the focus will be to gain swift promotion back to the second tier.

Given the trajectory of SAFC recently, and the way his managerial career didn't exactly take off, perhaps Dodds regrets leaving the club at the time he did. He was one of those people who came here in League One and did a tremdous job of rebuilding the football club from the ground up. Jobe Bellingham helped us get promoted and then his sale allowed full squad re-investment over that summer, which Dodds and Speakman deserve lots of credit for. The majority of everyone at Sunderland will be wishing him the best. Everyone speaks of him highly, not only as a great mind at nurturing young talent, but also as a genuine nice bloke.