SUNDERLAND last night held talks in London with Martin O’Neill about succeeding Steve Bruce at the Stadium of Light and are hoping to make an appointment before Sunday’s trip to Wolves.

Both Mark Hughes, the former Manchester City boss, and ex-Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez are among a long line of candidates interested in the job, but O’Neill is the preferred option.

And last night’s talks, which are believed to have gone well, suggest Sunderland chairman Ellis Short and Niall Quinn are close to getting their man.

O’Neill is understood to be happy with reassurances over the ambitions of the club, most notably the size of his transfer budget, and he would want to bring in his own backroom staff, likely to be assistant Steve Walford and former Leicester winger Steve Guppy.

The 59-year-old has been looking for a way back into Premier League management since leaving Aston Villa in August last year, when a breakdown in his relationship with club owner Randy Lerner ended with O’Neill resigning.

Since then he has been linked with a number of jobs – he is thought to have been keeping an eye on the situation at Blackburn Rovers – but the prospect of managing Sunderland appeals to him.

Short knows the appointment of O’Neill would help bring back disaffected fans.

But the American will also impress on O’Neill that Sunderland are looking to be sensible in their approach to pushing for a top-ten place, having worked hard on reducing the size of the squad during Bruce’s time in charge.

While O’Neill, who has had successful spells at Wycombe, Leicester, Celtic and Villa, is now the man leading the race for the job, former Manchester United striker Hughes is still in the frame.

Hughes, who has been linked with the Wales job in recent days, has informed his advisors to make contact with Sunderland.

Former Sunderland defender Michael Gray thinks Short should look at his former Blackburn boss. Gray, who played more than 350 games for Sunderland, said: “Martin O’Neill would be in my top two choices. I worked with him for a short period of time when I was up at Celtic and I know he is a terrific manager.

He gets the best out of people and that’s exactly what is needed at Sunderland.

“But my first choice would be Mark Hughes, who I worked with at Blackburn.

“I know how he works – he keeps the same coaching staff wherever he’s been and they are all fantastic. They’re a tight-knit unit and they work ever so hard on getting the players fit.

“Sunderland seem to be lacking that passion and commitment in the last 15 minutes of games – you can see that from how many games they’ve been losing late on.

They certainly wouldn’t be allowed to do that under Hughes.

“He brings a no-fear attitude to the players and drills it into them, a never-say-die attitude the club needs right now.”