Regis Le Bris wants to trim down Sunderland squad before season opener v Cardiff
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris has confirmed he’s looking to trim down the size of his squad before the new Championship season starts.
The Black Cats begin their 2024/25 campaign with an away trip to Cardiff City on 10 August.
Since the end of last season, the Wearsiders have released the likes of Bradley, Dack, Corry Evans and Jack Diamond but the only sale made has been that of Alex Bass to Notts County.
After the 1-0 friendly win over Blackpool at Bloomfield Road on Saturday, Le Bris revealed that he still thinks his squad is too big and that he’ll be looking to offload more players before the Cardiff game.
“Yeah, for sure [time to reduce the group],” he said, as quoted by the Sunderland Echo on Saturday (27 July).
“It is now two weeks until we play against Cardiff City, so it is now time to reduce the group and work on the starting XI and the substitutes who will be involved at the start of the season. So that’s our goal at the moment and for the other players who can’t be involved for the season, it will be interesting for them to find a loan for sure.”
Sunderland to continue letting players go
A lot of managers like to have a smaller squad to work with.
One example of that working out quite well in the Championship was when Marcelo Bielsa ended Leeds’ long exile from the Premier League with a very small crop of players.
It remains to be seen who Le Bris will look to move on but if he wants to get deals done before the game against Cardiff, he’ll have to work fast because it’s only two weeks away now and that time will no doubt fly with more pre-season friendlies play and more deals to strike.
Planet Nogomet reported on Friday (26 July) that the Black Cats are interested in signing Slovenian striker Zan Vipotnik.
He’s set to become a free agent after historic French club Bordeaux filed for bankruptcy.
It will be interesting to see if De Bris wants to make space for a signing like him first.
In other Sunderland news, Harrogate have signed a player who was released by the Black Cats.
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