New head coach Michael Beale believes his appointment is an extension of Sunderland's 'model'

Sunderland's new boss Michael Beale is keen to work within Sunderland's model and believes his own appointment fits perfectly within it

New boss Michael Beale is excited by the prospect of working within Sunderland's 'model' - and sees his appointment as a natural extension of the club's strategy. Over the last three years since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus bought into the club and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman arrived, Sunderland have changed direction and begun to follow a carefully-defined recruitment policy.

That meant an immediate switch away from a traditional manager to a sporting director/head coach set-up, while recruitment began to be led by data and analytics, and the club has shifted towards bringing in young talent with potential that can be developed, and eventually sold on to genereate funds to sign more players in the future. Former Glasgow Rangers boss Beale was confirmed as the club's new head coach this week and is 'excited' at working within that system.

And the 43-year-old believes he also fits the model as a young coach who can hone his own craft and establish himself in the top job, having spent all but 16 months of his career either working as an academy coach or as part of someone else's backroom team. "This was a huge decision for me," said Beale, following his appointment and ahead of his first game in charge against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light tomorrow.

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"In the last few weeks, I've had a lot of time to reflect with people around me and my family on where I'm going with my career and what I need. When the Sunderland job became available, it was a really good opportunity to sit down and understand more.

"I had my understanding of the model from the outside, and the model is about development and having an elite way of training and playing. It's about recruiting players that are on the up, rather than players that are maybe already at their full potential.

"There's an excitement with working with that, and the potential to fulfil it. It's a group of players that have really high ambition, and have not fulfilled it yet.

"I'm completely aligned with that. That's pretty much where I am as a coach as well - I need to establish myself firmly as a coach.

"I've been an assistant for a number of years, and in youth development, but as a lead coach, it's time for me to fulfil my potential here at Sunderland. And that's how I see the squad as well.

"That's where I see the alignment. All of the processes are nowhere near as complex as people would maybe assume.

"Everything that I've heard and listened to is what I believe in, and that's why I was so keen. The interview process was lengthy in terms of the amount of discussion we had and the areas we delved into and went back over, to make sure there was real clarity on all sides, and I'm delighted to be here."

He added: "This opportunity, at this club, with the people that are inside, is massive. Sunderland's a wonderful football club, and any manager would be delighted to have this opportunity.

"But also, the people inside the building are important, the players and the people you're going to be working alongside. I believe in the project at this club, and that's a big thing."

Sunderland sacked the popular Tony Mowbray as head coach in a shock move at the beginning of the month with the club sitting just three points outside the play-off places. But Speakman says Beale was the 'outstanding candidate' to fill the vacancy.

He said: "When you're Sunderland, you have a range of options, whether that's in the player market or the coach market, and for us, it was just about trying to find the right fit. It's not necessarily about whether people can do the job - there's people out there who can - it's about how well they can do the job and focus on the areas we want them to focus on.

"That's where we felt Michael was the outstanding candidate. He's articulated with great depth and understanding around what we want to do.

"In all these types of scenarios, we're also trying to get the new lens of a new coach to help us move forward. Sometimes, there's nothing better than a fresh set of eyes looking at the way we do our work.

"The reason we've got into the strong position we're in today is because we've had a growth mindset and we've been open-minded. When you listen to Michael speak, he talks about learning, development, curiosity, and that's what we're all about.

"The more we can do that, the faster we can move forward on our progress."