What Sunderland fans can expect from heavily linked managerial candidate Regis Le Bris
The Black Cats could finally be closing in on a managerial appointment
It’s made for a pleasant change of pace, this week, focusing all of my misery on how much of a basket case England appear to be rather than how much of a basket case Sunderland definitely are. Hell, at one point, I think I even forgot we didn’t have a manager. Then again, judging by their recent work, you suspect that at various times this summer, the board at the Stadium of Light might have forgotten too.
And then, suddenly, like a blade of grass poking through the churned top soil of an unmarked grave, Friday has brought with it fresh reports. The word on la rue is that the Black Cats are in advanced talks to appoint FC Lorient manager Regis Le Bris - no confirmation on the extent to which his christian and surnames rhyme just yet - with the hope being that an agreement can be reached in the next three to four days. May I speak on behalf of the entire Mackem fanbase and be the first to say: ‘Who?’
Of course, I am being facetious. But only a little. Compared to the myriad of other candidates that have come and gone like dandelion seeds on the breeze, Le Bris is a relative unknown. At the age of 48, he has only held one senior first team post - his current role - and at the time of writing, he has taken charge of exactly 76 matches. It is hardly an embarrassment of experience.
Prior to his appointment at Lorient, he spent seven years leading the B team in Brittany, and before that he was an academy chief, both at the Stade du Moustoir and with Stade Rennais. Again, his CV is gossamer-thin. Nevertheless, it is understood that Le Bris was one of five names on a shortlist made by Sunderland in the immediate aftermath of Michael Beale’s departure in February - although given how long it has taken them to reach this point in negotiations with the Frenchman, it is probably fair to assume that he was not anywhere near the top of that particular document. (It has been suggested that beneath the fabled Will Still, the Black Cats’ remaining quartet of alternatives had no real pecking order to them, but the club would say that, wouldn’t they?)
And maybe that was a reflection of how last season panned out for Lorient. After a stunning 10th-placed finish in 2022/23, Le Bris’ side cashed in on a couple of their shiniest talents and subsequently limped to an ignominious relegation from Ligue 1 in May. So far, so Sunderland, in fairness.
Indeed, things got so bad around Christmastime that a cadre of Lorient supporters banded together and dumped 400kg of rotting fish guts outside of the club’s training ground. Nobody does public displays of displeasure quite like the French.
Tactically, Le Bris likes to play on the transition, sitting deep and hitting his opponents at pace on the counter attack. When it works, it can be gutsy and thunderous - plenty of triangles and recycled phases and sudden explosions through the lines. When it doesn’t, it can lead to unrelenting sieges that starve and stifle optimism.
In other words, Sunderland are taking a significant gamble here. A worryingly unversed leader who is quite content to play without the ball, it is not hard to envisage a scenario in which Le Bris crumbles and swiftly becomes debris. But who knows? Maybe it will work out, and either way, if he is to be the man to end the Black Cats’ purgatorial wait for a new manager, then the very least he deserves is the benefit of the doubt.
Because the truth is, things have become so desperate on Wearside that you suspect many Mackems would take just about anybody at this stage. And in spite of the reasons to be hesitant, if there is one thing we can say about Le Bris, one big green tick that we can comprehensively mark next to his slightly alien name, it is this: he is a real, human person. Right now, that has to count for something.