Football is a funny old game isn't it? From doom and gloom to shoots of positivity in just over a fortnight.

The appointment of Regis Le Bris as Sunderland head coach has certainly played a part. It may not be the French coach himself who has swung the pendulum in the opposite direction, more so the search for Michael Beale's successor coming to a conclusion, but it's fair to say things are looking more positive.

Of course, not everyone has been won over by the appointment of Le Bris, but they along with the vast majority are more than willing to give the 48-year-old an opportunity.

READ MORE: Lorient's relegation and why Regis Le Bris shouldn't be judged - yet

In fact, from a personal perspective, the more investigating and digging We Are Sunderland do, the greater the excitement about the upcoming campaign. Of course, that could come crashing down as quickly as it has gone up, but for the meantime I'll revel in some positivity.

We're set to sit down with the new Sunderland head coach next week as he meets the press and fortunately for him, he'll be given some time to get his feet under the table and used to his new surroundings. It won't be his first box to tick, but an important one nonetheless.

We'll be able to get a measure of the man tasked with getting Sunderland to bounce back from a dismal end to the 2023/24 campaign, with a squad full to the brim of potential stars. Given his background in youth development, to coin a phrase so well used under the new ownership, there seems to be some alignment there at least.

Le Bris arrived on Wearside on Wednesday, met with staff at the Academy of Light on Thursday and accompanied Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus to the Stadium of Light on Friday to see the new club store open and speak with fans.

Heading into the weekend, Sunderland's players returned to the Academy of Light for some pre-season testing before things begin to ramp up on Monday. Le Bris, methodical and data driven in his approach, will be keen to cast his eye over these metrics over the course of the pre-season campaign.

The Frenchman officially starts his Black Cats tenure on July 1st, with a full week of training under his belt, before an inhouse friendly between the first-team on July 6.

He'll take time over the first week to get his ideas across to his players in terms of style of play and get accustomed to the personnel at his disposal, before a first public outing in a double header against South Shields and Gateshead on Saturday, July 13.

As We Are Sunderland discovered in a recent interview with L'Equipe's Lorient reporter, Flavien Trésarrieu, the former Lorient boss tinkered with his preferred style of play, accepting that the players he had at his disposal couldn't play the attacking, front foot style he preferred, opting for a more direct, yet attractive counter attacking approach.

Le Bris will meet with Speakman and Stuart Harvey to discuss recruitment plans for this summer, while the make-up of his backroom staff at Sunderland also needs to be finalised. Former interim Sunderland head coach Mike Dodds has already gone on record to offer his support to the new head coach.

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"Whoever that person is, I will support them as much or as little as they want me to," Dodds said in one of his final press conferences last season. "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 (Neil), 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."

It's very much full steam ahead.