Allardyce, Moyes 'have rejected Sunderland job' - time to call Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink?

The Daily Mail reports that Moyes is happy to remain at Real Sociedad for now, while Sam Allardyce has told Sunderland's sporting director Lee Congerton that he is "not interested".

Burnley manager Sean Dyche "has also indicated that he does not wish to be considered", the report adds, while Harry Redknapp had already made it plain that he has no interest in the job.

With Dick Advocaat having given notice well before he left at the weekend, the club's search for a new manager is under way - but with Sunderland hot favourites to go down, Congerton is seemingly finding it tough to find a manager who may end up being a glorified fall guy.

The situation is probably not helped by the fact that Congerton himself is understood to be working his notice.

Sunderland chairman Ellis Short is reportedly yet to decide if he wants to persist with the model of a head coach working under a recruitment specialist - something which precludes the appointment of bookies' favourite Allardyce - or revert to the more conventional approach.

Should he change tack and give the new manager control of transfers, Allardyce might apparently yet be persuaded to take the reins.

Short always looked like having a tough job persuading a new head coach to join the club after the departed Advocaat expressed his doubts that the squad was good enough to survive in the top flight.

The Texan businessman is still assessing his options following Dutchman Advocaat's decision to walk away from the job after Saturday's 2-2 Premier League draw with West Ham.

But speaking to the Dutch media following his exit, the 68-year-old suggested he was in part influenced by a summer recruitment drive which fell some way short in terms of quality of the six key players he wanted.

Advocaat told Studio Voetbal: "I already made my decision last week, but the club asked me to do the match against West Ham and I really wanted to finish this in style.

"The struggle against relegation is not my cup of tea. I think it was time for someone else to take over at Sunderland. I became negative and that didn't feel like myself.

"I don't regret signing my new contract, because it was a great experience. Our squad was simply not good enough. The club knew that we had to strengthen ourselves, but the chairman (Ellis Short) never told me how much we could spend."

At first glance we can understand why Allardyce might say no - he is, after all, surely still waiting for a call from Real Madrid or Inter Milan - to this one. Who wants to be helicoptered on to the Titanic to be captain of a sinking ship?

That's the popular perception, at least - yet there's no real reason to believe that Sunderland are anything like as bad as they've been painted. A 2-2 draw with a red-hot West Ham team shows that there is plenty of spirit left at the Stadium of Light, and a bit of talent too. Nobody won fewer matches that the Black Cats last season, but they had the stingiest defence in the bottom seven of the league and that's probably not a bad starting point for a young, ambitious manager with everything to prove.

What Short should do, then, is simple. Ignore the same tired, old names like Allardyce and take a punt on a young boss on the up, with everything to prove. Why not give Burton Albion's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink a call, for example? After leading his side to the League Two title he now has them top of League One after 11 matches of the new season - and three points clear at the top as well.