Mike Dodds reveals his key hope for his Sunderland role next season after 'rollercoaster' campaign

Mike Dodds says he is hoping for a period of stability next season as he returns to the first-team coaching staff, something which he thinks will also benefit the club's playing squad.

Dodds has had a 'rollercoaster' of a season, and will bring to an end his second spell as interim head coach this weekend when Sunderland play their final Championship fixture against Sheffield Wednesday at the Stadium of Light. While the interim boss is expecting to return to his previous role, he does not yet know who will be named as Michael Beale's permanent successor and so admits he does not yet know what his exact responsibilities will be within the new regime.

Whatever he is tasked with, Dodds says he hopes it will be for an extended period in order to allow him to devote his full focus.

"It depends on what type of head coach they go for," Dodds said, asked what the next steps in the summer would be.

"The next head coach, my personal opinion, has to have a player development background. They have to because of the make-up of the squad. It would make no sense to go for...I'm not going to name names, but it would make no sense to go for a certain profile of manager with the squad we've got.

"In terms of my responsibility, I will support that person where the club sees fit. This year has been a complete rollercoaster for me. "I started the season as first team coach, although Tony was unbelievable with me in terms of allowing me to prepare the team. 'Then I went in as interim then the club asked me to assist Mick. I didn't know Mick but we knew each other because we have similar types of backgrounds, and he was more comfortable with that. Then I came back in as interim head coach. I think from my perspective, from a selfish perspective, I'd just want 12 months of doing one thing. It's always difficult to get your teeth into something when you're doing something for a month then something for two months then six months. That's not just football, that's anything. From my point of view, my hope is whatever the club wants me to do I get a full season to focus on that."

Dodds has admitted that taking over from Beale was a major challenge both for himself or the players, not because he disagreed with the former head coach's methods but because they were very different from his own. Finding greater stability next season is a must, in his opinion.

"I wouldn't use the word turbulence but it was completely different and I felt that in the first couple of weeks," Dodds said.

"When I took over from Tony I'd been doing a lot of the team preparation under Tony anyway - although obviously Tony was guiding me in terms of what he wanted. The first time was more or less the same with my own stamp on it. The second time, Mick had come in and has a clear methodology with how he wants to work, which is the same for any head coach. The next will be the same. To take over from Mick, I found that transition really difficult. But that will be a reflection point for me, because if I am going to be a head coach one day, the reality is I'll be going in somewhere whether either it's going really well and someone has moved on or it's not going very well and I have to pick the bits up. The two experiences, one was really smooth, one was really clunky.

In terms of preparation and how my ideal working week would go, I just think if you put your self in the players' position, they've had Tony, me - there wasn't a huge amount of change there, then Mick came in and wanted to put his stamp on it, then me again, that's four periods in a season of doing different things. In any type of business that's not healthy.

"But at the same time I can't be Mick or Tony, I can only be Mike Dodds," he added.

"I wasn't prepared to take over the game for these 13 games and just do what Mick did. There was bits I stole from Tony and bits from Mick and tried to put my own stamp on it. But coming in with 13 games to go and trying to imprint something is really difficult."

Dodds says he will give the new head coach an honest assessment of the squad they are taking over, and says it will be up to them how much influence he has moving forward.

"Whoever that person is, I will support them as much or as little as they want me to," Dodds said.

"I'll give them a little bit more honesty than I'm giving here - and I mean that respectfully. I'll give them real insight in terms of Tony to me, me to Mick, Mick to me. And I'll give them insight into the group, who needs to be better at what. Then at that point you want to try and put your own stamp on it and I'll be completely supportive of that. I've been really fortunate, Alex, Tony and Mick, I've had good relationships with all three, I've been really fortunate. An organic relationship with the next person is something we all want but we won't know that until we get our teeth into pre-season."