Former Brighton boss Gus Poyet has been named as new Sunderland head coach on a two-year deal.
The Black Cats lie bottom of the Premier League and sacked Paolo Di Canio in September after only 13 games.
Poyet, 45, who was dismissed by the Seagulls in June, will be joined at the Stadium of Light by his former Brighton backroom staff of Mauricio Taricco and Charlie Oatway.
He becomes Sunderland's sixth manager in the past five years.
"We analysed a wide range of candidates and believe that Gus's track record, experience, commitment and passion make him the right man to take us forward," said Sunderland chairman Ellis Short.
The club's senior professional development coach Kevin Ball had been in temporary charge of the club since Di Canio was relieved of his position following a player revolt at the club.
Ball, 48, had asked to be considered for the job, but said following Sunderland's 2-1 defeat by Manchester United on Saturday he did not expect to be doing another post-match news conference any time soon.
Former Chelsea and Tottenham player Poyet, who was capped 26 times by his country, started his coaching career in England in 2006 as assistant to Dennis Wise at Swindon Town then Leeds United.
He joined Spurs as first-team coach after one year at Elland Road, later becoming assistant manager to Juande Ramos.
In 2009 he was appointed manager at Brighton, leading the south coast club to promotion from League One then taking them to last season's Championship play-off semi-final, where they were beaten by eventual winners Crystal Palace.
He was suspended by Brighton in May after an internal investigation and disciplinary hearing and sacked a month later for gross misconduct.
The full reasons for his sacking have not been revealed by either party, with Brighton saying the matter would stay confidential "to ensure and maintain confidentiality and dignity" after the former Chelsea midfielder's unsuccessful appeal against his dismissal.
He said in August he was taking legal action against Brighton over the decision to dismiss him.
Poyet, who has no experience of management in the top flight, made no secret of his interest in the job at the Stadium of Light, and recently said: "I planned that, over the first matches of this season, I would pay a lot of attention to the teams I thought could be in trouble.
"Of course, I watch Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, but there was a group of teams who, if they didn't start well, I thought I could have a chance.
"I was watching Sunderland a lot. People were talking a lot about them in the summer because of Paolo and how many new players they had, so I have seen quite a lot of them."
Source: BBC
