'Specialist' Regis Le Bris described as perfect fit for Sunderland

Regis Le Bris arrived at Sunderland with relatively little fanfare, but is he the perfect man to make supporters believe in the strategy?

Regis Le Bris described at perfect fit for Sunderland / IMAGO / NurPhoto

Sky Spots Championship expert Don Goodman says Regis Le Bris is the perfect fit for Sunderland and their much talked-about strategy.

The Black Cats currently sit top of the Championship table after winning all four of their opening games, and few would deny they don’t deserve it.

It comes after Sunderland sold star man Jack Clarke and a lot of discussion among fans about whether or not the club’s developmental model has a high enough ceiling.

---

READ NEXT: Don Goodman 'optimistic' on Sunderland promotion chances

---

Goodman, though, who used to play for Sunderland in the 1990s, is confident his former club has made an exceptionally shrewd appointment.

Speaking to Sunderland Nation via the sportsbooks experts at Oddspedia, Goodman said: “It's really nice to see Sunderland go for a manager who really fits what they're doing with youth and really taps into the way they want to build the club.

“I know for a fact that Regis Le Bris wasn't the first choice, but I also know that his profile was not dissimilar from certainly some of the candidates. Any of the other candidates that may have been slightly ahead of him in the pecking order, the files were very, very similar.

“Hiring managers from abroad can be a massive gamble, but you've got to have the courage of your convictions to back your judgment. With Sunderland, the owners and the director of football in the hierarchy, some of the appointments have been brilliant and some of them they've got horribly wrong. You can't disguise it and you can't describe it any other way. But the early signs under Le Bris are very, very encouraging.”

Le Bris’ appointment was the culmination of a very long recruitment process. That drew a lot of criticism from supporters and prompted Kristjaan Speakman to admit the club’s communication with fans was not good enough.

It’s probably fair to say that Le Bris was not a name that created a lot of excitement too given he was largely unknown to supporters.

Goodman, though, says it’s clear it’s a very good fit for what Sunderland are trying to achieve – especially with some additional experience being recruited for his squad this summer.

“Regis Le Bris coming in, his last job the team that he was in charge of got relegated, so you look at that and think some fans won’t have been overly excited, because they wouldn't have known enough about him.

“But what they would have been assured about is that he is a specialist in developing young players, which of course is the Sunderland template at the moment.

“So he's been brought to the football club to do that and he's got an enormous amount of talented young players to work with. I don't think there's a team or squad in the Championship that has such volume of young talent.

“But I'm really glad that they signed Alan Browne, and I'm really glad that they explored one or two other avenues to bring in experience such as Chris Mepham into the building. Ian Poveda signed as well - he's only 24, so he's young, but he's got that little bit more experience than an awful lot of the signings that Sunderland have been making in recent times.

“So I'm more optimistic now than I was before a ball was kicked this season that Sunderland can be successful.”