Régis Le Bris will have little time to get used to his new surroundings before the relentless cycle of the new Championship season gets under way in August.
Le Bris will officially take post at the Stadium of Light on Monday, July 1 as Sunderland’s squad of players return to the Academy of Light for pre-season duty before the club’s first round of fixtures on Saturday, July 13.
The Frenchman, who has agreed a three-year deal on Wearside, will then have less than six weeks before the 2024-25 Championship season kicks off over the weekend of August 10 to get his new squad ready and in shape to mount a top six charge after what became a forgetful 2023-24 campaign.
Le Bris’ appointment brings an end to months of searching, speculation and near misses as Sunderland were finally able to find a replacement for Michael Beale in the 48-year-old Lorient boss.
But the Le Bris has plenty of work to do if he is to improve on Sunderland’s 16th place finish in the Championship last season, as well as lift morale on Wearside after what has been a barren six-month period since the sacking of Tony Mowbray in December.
We Are Sunderland runs through some of the immediate issues facing Le Bris when he moves into office at the Academy of Light next month and how they can lead to a successful tenure:
Addressing Sunderland’s contract issues and sitting down with key players
With Sunderland’s head coach search dragging over four months, it has led to a number of issues beyond the immediate concern as to who would actually fill the vacant seat in the dugout with a number of players hesitant over what both the short and long-term future looks like at the Stadium of Light.
While the likes of Corry Evans and Bradley Dack are to leave the club this summer, Sunderland have found themselves in a position whereby a number of their assets have stalled over new deals with the club – most notably Chris Rigg and Dan Neil.
Neil, 22, still has two years remaining on his current contract which means the club are a little more relaxed over his future, despite the midfielder rejecting an initial approach over extending his stay at the Stadium of Light at the beginning of the month. Neil has suitors in the Premier League, having been watched a number of times by top flight clubs over the course of the last two seasons, but is believed to be in no immediate hurry to leave his boyhood club despite there being reservations over the club’s head coach search this summer.
Neil, it’s suggested, has been keen to see who the new head coach would be and how things play out in the short-term before agreeing to extend his contract beyond the summer of 2026 with teenager Rigg of a similar mindset.
READ MORE: Dan Neil, Chris Rigg and the impact Sunderland's head coach search is having
Rigg, who turned 17 last week, is now eligible to sign his first professional deal in football and has a number of elite level clubs queuing up to pry him away from Wearside. Like Neil, Rigg has stalled over committing his long-term future to the club owing to the prolonged head coach search, with the midfielder keen to sit down with the new man in charge to outline his future.
Rigg became the shining light of an otherwise abject ending to last season and is held in the highest regard by the club internally.
Rigg’s exposure to senior football, particularly under interim head coach Mike Dodds, it is hoped, will contribute towards the player committing his future to the club but that may hinge on how conversations between Rigg and new head coach, Le Bris, play out.
Any club wishing to sign Rigg could be forced into a tribunal which means any move away from Wearside could be drawn out, but that should not remove the fact that one of Le Bris’ first items on his to-do list will be to sit down with Rigg to discuss the lay of the land.
Le Bris has a strong reputation for developing younger players owing to his time with Lorient where he won the French title with the club’s under-17s in 2015 before managing the B-team and eventually taking the senior head coach role in 2022. Prior to his time at Stade du Moustoir, Le Bris was part of the academy set-up with Stade Rennais in 2004 where he also won an under-18 national title and as well as victory in the Coupe Gambardella, France’s equivalent of the FA Youth Cup.
That success with younger players is undoubtedly something which attracted Sunderland and the hope will be that can continue on Wearside with the likes of Rigg, who he will be keen to keep.
Jack Clarke is another player who should be high on Le Bris’ list of players to sit down with while unpacking his office in the Academy of Light. Clarke has proved integral to Sunderland since turning his loan move from Tottenham Hotspur into a permanent deal in 2022 and would prove almost something of a coup for Le Bris if her were able to convince the 23-year-old to remain at the Stadium of Light for another season.
Clarke, like Neil, has two years remaining on his existing contract with Sunderland but has a number of interested parties after the club turned down several approaches over the last 12 months. Keeping Clarke, at this stage, feels unlikely for Sunderland given his impact in the Championship over the last two years, but Le Bris will have the opportunity to provide a clean slate, with fresh ideas, in an attempt to convince the likes of Clarke, Neil and Rigg that their futures are best-places on Wearside, and those are talks which need to take place sooner rather than later.
Lifting morale of players
In speaking with his squad of players early, Le Bris will hopefully be able to lay the foundations of improving morale within the Sunderland camp after last season.
Despite possessing a number of talented players with potential, and having been involved in the top six conversation throughout the first half of the 2023-24 campaign, Sunderland drifted away at an alarming rate at the turn of the year, winning just five games since New Year’s Day. Sunderland’s dismal run of form was entrenched with a severe lack of excitement when it came to their performances and an increasing sense of apathy within the stands, all of which has undoubtedly contributed towards a low mood around the Academy of Light.
The prolonged search for a new head coach will have done little to boost the confidence of players who must now begin their preparations to rediscover both their form and fitness and adapt to the philosophy of a new head coach.
Le Bris has studied Sunderland’s squad throughout the negotiation process and will be familiar with a number of the club’s French contingent, including Adil Aouchiche who he coached at Lorient. The 48-year-old ‘values strong relationships with both players and staff’ whereby if he can re-establish a higher level of morale around the club throughout pre-season heading into the new Championship campaign, it could go a long way to aiding the primitive stages of his tenure.
Create a clear style of play
Upon his appointment, sporting director Kristjaan Speakman spoke of how Le Bris mirrored the club’s vision both in terms of its ‘passion for talent development’ and its ‘playing identity.’
During Sunderland’s first season back in the Championship under Tony Mowbray, they produced a string of remarkable team goals fit for any highlight reel as they offered an almost fearless brand of attacking and counter-attacking football.
With last summer’s recruitment drive hindering the club’s progression somewhat, Mowbray found it difficult to recapture that style of play for the most part of his 19 games in charge last season before being relieved of his duties in December. Since then however, it became evident just how much Mowbray was getting out of this squad when compared to the failed reign of Michael Beale and the disastrous second interim period of Dodds.
READ MORE: Eight under 25 per cent: The surprise numbers behind Sunderland's 2023 summer recruitment
Sunderland’s style of play drifted from frustrating and inconsistent under Mowbray, having seen such highs in 2022-23, to ponderous and reserved under Beale before outright boring as described by Dodds in the final weeks of the season. If Le Bris can reignite the free-flowing nature of the current squad it will, at least, offer some encouragement to supporters in the short-term.
Much of that brand of play will depend on the players he has at his disposal at the end of the transfer window come the end of August and just who remains at the club, too. Sunderland found goals a major issue throughout the majority of last season, particularly if Clarke was unable to register his name on the scoresheet and that is something Le Bris will need to address.
Le Bris’ style of play must find a way to unlock Sunderland’s potential and create opportunities for their attacking players after what was a troubling season in front of goal for all four of last summer’s additions, while also being able to quickly integrate any new signings more efficiently than we saw last year.
Getting the fans onside
Equally as important as Le Bris’ work internally when it comes to conversations and improving his team will be the external factor in regards to supporters.
It’s no secret the Sunderland fanbase is one of disgruntlement and almost disillusionment at present having witnessed such a big drop off from their side over the last 12 months. At the conclusion of their first season back in the Championship, which resulted in a near miss in the play-offs against Luton Town, there was a renewed sense of hope and optimism awash across Wearside that the club was on the brink of competing once more for a return to the Premier League, only to see those hopes and aspirations diminish last season.
READ MORE: The inside story of Sunderland's Regis Le Bris appointment and whether it will work
For the first time under the current ownership, there was noticeable discontent at times towards the end of last season owing to a series of significant errors both on and off the field since the sacking of Mowbray. Supporters, on more than one occasion, held banners in the Stadium of Light in protest of the club’s model and decision making with regards to the Black Cats Bar fiasco and that pressure has only ramped up over the summer due to the prolonged head coach search after several names came and went.
Sunderland will, again, be backed by well in advance of 30,000 season ticket holders for the 2024-25 season and they need some tangible reward. Since their return to the second tier in 2022, Sunderland have won just 17 of 46 games at the Stadium of Light with their last win on Wearside coming on February 10 against Plymouth Argyle.
Le Bris, almost out of his control, faces an immediate challenge to win over supporters and get them onside due to circumstance prior to his arrival. It’s often suggested how Sunderland can be a great place to be plying your trade in football when the team is winning and how it can be the opposite of that when results are not necessarily going your way – as Beale found out early in his tenure.
Winning over supporters early with both his media presence, another area in which Beale fell short at times, and most importantly on field impact will go a long way to reducing some of those potential early bumps in the road for Le Bris.
Get off to a good start
The simple way to do that is to win games of football and that will require Le Bris to get off to a good start next season.
Sunderland have been starved of relative success insofar as simply registering wins in the win column this year so by getting off to a positive start will be able to build some momentum.
Last season, Sunderland lost all three of their opening games in league and cup which amplified concerns between Mowbray and the club’s ownership and, despite a bright six-week period leading into the beginning of October, Mowbray was never quite able to wrestle that momentum back to where it was in the 2022-23 campaign.
Confidence plays just as big a part in football as talent and Sunderland have been at both ends of the confidence spectrum in recent seasons having cultured a series of prolonged unbeaten runs in both League One and the Championship which led them to promotion and then the play-offs, while also last season then finding themselves on a long winless streak as enthusiasm drained away.
Although Beale took seven points from his first 12 available, it never felt like he was going to be able to swing the pendulum in his favour having received huge criticism in his first game in charge against Coventry City. Le Bris, fortunately, shouldn’t have to face such pressure and angst in his first game in charge, nor will he be caught up in an off-field rift regarding the club’s great rivals, Newcastle United.
That said, supporters will need to see clear signs of progress early if Le Bris is able to abolish the notion things being unable to change from the end of last season. A positive pre-season will help, likewise the club’s hierarchy supplementing their new head coach with a number of significant signings as opposed to works in progress, despite Le Bris’ background in developing players.
Ultimately however, Le Bris will be judged by what is on show from August 10 and a winning start, something Sunderland have only managed once in the last five years, will be key for the Frenchman.
Read the rules here