Sunderland chief Kristjaan Speakman makes ‘really incredible’ Regis Le Bris admission
Kristjaan Speakman said the “really incredible” period Regis Le Bris had with Lorient brought him to the attention of Sunderland.
The Black Cats have got off to a flying start in the Championship so far this season and much of that is down to the arrival of head coach Le Bris who has overseen his side’s climb to the top of the table.
Speakman revealed how the club uncovered Le Bris and brought him to the Stadium of Light.
In a podcast with The Second Tier (13 October) Speakman explained: “The process is really dynamic, we try to have a system in place behind the scenes, we try to work through it methodically. We have a little working group that operates all the way through the coach’s tenure looking at up-and-coming coaches and a couple of years ago we knew Regis had moved from the b team into the head coach position at Lorient.
“He came onto our radar as they (Lorient) did really well, they overperformed in their first year. At that point, we knew about him and he went through a really incredible period with Lorient where they did really well through the end of the season.
“We kept on tracking his progress and with these things it’s a timing thing, When he was coming to the end of his time at Lorient we had an opportunity and we seized that opportunity quite quickly and we felt we had the right guy for the job.”
Sunderland have a real chance of promotion this season
The key to a good season is often getting off to a good start and Sunderland couldn’t have gotten off to a much better one if they tried. The Black Cats have won six of their opening nine, the joint-best record in the league and currently sit top of the table – albeit level on points with Sheffield United.
Players such as Romaine Mundle and Jobe Bellingham have excelled under Le Bris and they deserve to be where they are.
January will pose a real opportunity but also a threat for Sunderland as they will no doubt be looking to utilise the window to improve their chances of promotion.
An opportunity of course as it presents an opportunity for the club to add to an already solid squad foundation but a threat as they will inevitably face interest for a number of key players
Should Sunderland maintain their impressive form into the window, ambitions may very quickly turn.
In other Sunderland news, Darren Bent has encouraged Jordan Henderson to return to Sunderland
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