Sunderland's search for a new manager was well publicised and many believed that it would be Roy Keane who ended up in the hotseat at the Stadium of Light.

However, their hunt eventually led them to Alex Neil after the former Black Cats boss snubbed the chance to take the role. He wasn't the only name on the shortlist though and a report from The Sun journalist Alan Nixon today has revealed that both Grant McCann and Neil Warnock were offered similar deals to Keane.

Ultimately, it was the offer on the table for the former Man United player that led to him turning down the role with Sunderland. According to this report, the deal would only have seen Keane take charge for the rest of the year.

It's now been revealed that similar deals were offered to both Grant McCann and Neil Warnock before Sunderland eventually landed former Preston boss Alex Neil. The former of the two has plenty of experience in getting a team out of League One, having done similar with Hull, while the latter is extremely experienced at Championship level.

Both could have been astute appointments but instead it has been Neil who now has the task of securing Sunderland a promotion. Having managed at both Deepdale and with Norwich, he has the knowhow to compete much higher up the football pyramid - and given time, he could certainly land the results that the Black Cats want.

Whether they should have offered Keane, McCann or Warnock more in order to lure them in over Neil will only be revealed as the season draws on and we see how the new manager performs in his role.

The Verdict

Alex Neil is arguably the best option of the lot when it comes to getting the best out of a team and putting a philosophy in place that can secure longer-term success for a side if he is backed.

Roy Keane may have instilled some fire at the Stadium of Light and has the knowledge from his time as a player but he has been out of the management game for a considerable amount of time and it would have been a gamble to appoint him. With McCann, he has shown he can get a team out of the league but there is a question of his abilities in the Championship.

Warnock can certainly cut it in the second tier but he has been more of a short-term fix rather than a long-term solution in recent years. Would appointing Warnock now have bagged promotion? Potentially, but if they were to sack him in a years time then all the good work would have come undone and they would be back to square one.

Neil then is probably the most shrewd appointment - but he will need to be afforded time in his new job, something that is in short supply at the Stadium of Light as of late.