Former Leeds United and Sunderland boss 'in talks' about international manager role

Former Leeds United boss Simon Grayson is reportedly in talks to take over as manager of the India national team. Grayson is no stranger to Indian football with the 54-year-old's last job coming with Indian Super League side Bengaluru, where he spent a year and a half in charge.

He left that job in December 2023, despite taking the club to the ISL final earlier in the year, and he has been looking for a new job ever since, with punditry work keeping him around the game. However, according to Football Insider, Grayson could be set to take his first steps into international management with India.

The Blue Tigers parted ways with Igor Stimac earlier this week after being eliminated from the Asian qualification process for the 2026 World Cup. As such, they are on the lookout for a new manager to take them to the 2027 Asian Cup and it is claimed preliminary talks have taken place with Grayson.

India are currently ranked 121st in the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest ranking since 2017, and it comes on the back of a run of results in which they have won just one game since their SAFF Championship final win over Kuwait last July. The nation hasn't qualified to compete in a World Cup since 1950 and while India have been involved in three of the last four Asian Cups, they haven't made it out of the group stages since 1964.

As such, the task of turning the Indians around will be a big one, but given Grayson is familiar with both the players and the culture, he would fancy his chances of finding success in the role should he take it.

The job would be Grayson's 10th as a manager, having started dugout life in 2005 with Blackpool, where he spent his final days as a player. The North Yorkshireman took the job at Leeds in 2008 and spent a little over three years in charge.

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He led the Whites to promotion from League One in that time and managed to re-establish Leeds in the Championship before his dismissal in 2012. Since leaving Elland Road he has managed Huddersfield Town, Preston North End, Sunderland, Bradford City, Fleetwood Town and Blackpool for a second time before his switch to Bengaluru in 2022.

"The India experience was an unbelievable experience for 18 months," Grayson told the YEP a few weeks ago. "I loved every minute of it. It was completely out of my comfort zone coaching personally, going into the unknown every day, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

“Football-wise, it taught me a lot about myself, the culture and philosophies and ideas and how you had to adapt. And I'm certainly a better coach from going out there now than when I actually went out in the first place.

"The difficult part was being away from home so 18 months was long enough. I was never going to stay much longer than that anyway. But it's been nice to be back home, to a different sort of climate!"

He added: "I want to go back to work but it's hopefully getting the right job at the right time."