Jack Ross has been chatting about all things Sunderland. He kicked off with his decision to come to SAFC in the first place, after he chose Sunderland ahead of Ipswich. "It was the sheer potential of this job that was really attractive. To drop to League One as opposed to testing myself in the Championship with Ipswich was something I had to consider. But there is probably no glass ceiling in this job in terms of where it can possibly go in the future. It was a really difficult decision for me to leave St Mirren because I was really happy in the job and I was really excited about the challenge of managing them in the Scottish Premiership. It wasn't as straightforward and simple as some people might have thought to leave. There was a huge pull for me to stay at the club and try to finish the job that I started. I think having shown I could take on difficult jobs and turn them round to a degree maybe made me more of an option for them."
It seems he’s beginning to realise the size of the club he’s in charge of: "I knew it was a big club, but now that I've been down for a month I didn't appreciate how big in terms of the stadium, support, training ground, everything," he said. "The club in terms of what it has at its disposal is huge. The owners are very good and they are very understanding of the huge raft of changes that are going on at the club and the challenges I will face because of that. They haven't stipulated that (promotion) as a necessity, but I never shied away from my ambition with St Mirren and my ambition this season is to get promoted back to the Championship and start building and progressing from there. It's natural that you will lean towards players that you know, but I'm also trying to identify those who have experience of this league. There will be ones in Scotland that fit the bill in terms of having the quality but not having experience of that league. We are still a bit uncertain about what holes we'll have in the squad depending on who leaves the club."
Ross then moved onto finances and how much money he has to spend. "I've never been that bothered with budgets," he added. "I've seen my task in hand to try to get the best players I can with the resources and get the best out of them on the training pitch and put them together as a team. I don't even know my budget if I'm entirely honest. It will be something that will change and evolve depending on how the squad is trimmed. I know that I'm with a club that can compete healthily in that league and for a manager that gives you comfort as well."
