“On team selection, it’s like training; it’s like a lot of things; the reason we all do what we do is that we’re obsessed with football,” Speakman said.

“We all come in from a different angle, and we sit in a really open environment, as we have done with player recruitment. Not in terms of team selection for a Saturday, but just in terms of how the team is going to evolve and what it’s going to look like. Ultimately, the coach has to make that judgement call at the end to say, ‘This is the team

that I’m going with’. We’re always trying to merge the game strategy, i.e., how do we beat Coventry, and align that with how we continually improve the team and get better over a period of time. Sometimes that can provoke more difficult discussions, and there’s a complexity to it, but ultimately the coach has to be able to pick a team that can do the job on a Saturday.

“Different coaches will make different choices, of course, and what we want to try and do over a period of time is aligned with the types of players you’re bringing in because you want to be efficient [in your recruitment]. We’re really comfortable with that.”

Speakman also said that the club holds individual player development meetings over the course of the season to assess the progress of the side and to discuss next steps with the coaching staff.

“We’ve always had loads of review points throughout the season,” he said.

“We have a player audit from a recruitment standpoint before we then go into the recruitment meeting. We have meetings in terms of the development of the players; there’s always loads of open conversation about how the players are progressing and how we ensure we get what they need, and the team gets what it needs in terms of results out on the pitch.

“That’s a balance; sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t. We try to make as many good decisions as we can, and ultimately, we don’t see it as contradictory in terms of the players we’ve got; we think we’ve got enough

depth and variety. It will, of course, be good for us to get Michael’s view because sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can add something different. We’re as determined as anyone to keep getting better.”

Speakman made it clear that all head coaches are expected to build a team within the club’s broader playing style, but said that was never an issue in Mowbray’s case.

“We’re certainly putting pressure on ourselves to play a certain style because we’ve got an identity at Sunderland that we need to have,” he said.

“Everybody needs to be aligned with that, and Tony certainly was.When Tony came to the football club, we spent hours sitting in his living room going through what Sunderland is and how he felt he could add to Sunderland. He came, and he did that for us.

“The stuff around the other.