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SoccerAddicts can announce that in the last few minutes, Sunderland AFC have confirmed that coach Ricky Sbragia has left the club after 8 years.

He joined the North East club in 1994 from York as a youth coach. In his spell at the club he has coached the Under 17s and Under 19s before being upgraded to reserve team coach just over 3 years ago.

It was a hard decision for him, but on leaving he said "I'd like to thank Sunderland for the opportunity they have given me. I feel that the club are in a good position now and will do well under the new management team.''

Sbragia will take up a similar position at Manchester United as he did at Sunderland, which saw his team as runners up in the reserve league 3 years running. Manager Howard Wilkinson said he was sad to see him go, and on the subject of getting a replacement, he stated: "Obviously this leaves a hole in the staffing arrangements which I will need to address in the short term but there is still too much going on to undertake a full appraisal of our long-term staffing requirements."

This has been a sucessful year so far for Sbragia who has seen many of his players added to the full team, such as George McCartney and Thomas Butler. He will no doubt do wonders for Man Utd's ailing league position this season.