Sunderland make contact with Gus Poyet to discuss becoming the club's new manager Poyet has been out of work since he was sacked by Brighton & Hove Albion over the summer, but is highly rated by the Sunderland board who were considering appointing him before offering the job to Paolo Di Canio back in March. The former Chelsea and Tottenham star is free to work for another club following a dispute with Brighton over the circumstances surrounding his dismissal and Sunderland owner Ellis Short is impressed with the job he did on the south coast. Short has also been told Poyet is a considerably better tactician than Di Canio and does not possess the same egotistical and confrontational management style. It remains to be seen whether Poyet is the only manager Sunderland are interested in speaking to, with the likes of Steve McClaren, Tony Pulis and even former England manager Glenn Hoddle thought to be interested in the challenge ahead after Di Canio's disastrous 13-game reign. The club were determined to give the impression on Monday that they were going to take their time with the appointment of a new manager and wait to see who applies for the job before drawing up a shortlist. Sunderland have also looked into the possibility of bringing in Roberto Di Matteo, but the Champions League winner with Chelsea appears to be reluctant to move to the North East and is still being paid by Roman Abramovich following his dismissal at Stamford Bridge last season.