Sunderland AFC: Kyril Louis-Dreyfus reveals exactly why he appointed Regis Le Bris | OneFootball

Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has spoken on the process behind appointing Regis Le Bris, which is proving to be an inspired decision

Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has explained exactly why he appointed Regis Le Bris in the summer.

Louis-Dreyfus concluded Sunderland's extensive managerial search by snapping up Le Bris, who was available after being relieved of his duties by Lorient at the end of the previous campaign.

Le Bris may have been a largely unknown quantity on English shores, but he has made a remarkably quick adaptation to the Championship.

Indeed, Sunderland have emerged as the team to beat so far this season, having won seven of their opening ten games to ascend to the summit of the league table, and they are showing no signs of slowing down either.

Le Bris' dynamic and front-footed counter-attacking brand of football has been pivotal to their early-season success, with Sunderland blowing away opposition on a routine basis.

His appointment is already looking like an inspired one, then, and Louis-Dreyfus has lifted the lid on just how they managed to pull it off and why he believes Sunderland have been successful under his tuition thus far this term.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus explains why Sunderland appointed Regis Le Bris

The Black Cats chief revealed all on Le Bris in an in-depth interview with French outlet RMC Sport, which he initiated by comprehensively explaining their process when it came to appointing him.

Louis-Dreyfus admitted that Le Bris had been monitored by Sunderland for close to two years before eventually taking the hot-seat this summer. They had been tracking the Frenchman from when he took the job at Lorient, who he guided to a respectable 10th-placed finish in Ligue 1 during his first season in charge.

However, Le Bris was dismissed by Lorient in the wake of a miserable second season which ultimately concluded in relegation to Ligue 2, although it meant he was available and Louis-Dreyfus managed to pull off the appointment despite initial concerns about whether the manager would have been willing to dive straight back into a job.

"We’ve been following Régis Le Bris’ progress for a long time. I think it’s since he was appointed head coach of the Lorient first team," Louis-Dreyfus revealed to RMC Sport.

"We started following him closely because we had a lot of very positive feedback on him and his work methodology from players, owners and other people in the world of football in France.

He explained that there was a worry that Le Bris would jump straight back into a job with well-documented pressure and demands after being relegated with Lorient, a role he believes would have been difficult for anyone to handle.

"We thought it was a very difficult and particular context. It would have made the task very difficult for anyone," Louis-Dreyfus said of Le Bris' season at Lorient.

"When someone goes through a difficult period, it can cost them a lot of energy. Our biggest, our only doubt, was whether after this season he would have enough fresh energy to be able to immediately get started on a new project.

"Once we saw that this was the case, we were confident in telling ourselves that all the other things would be experiences that would help him rather than harm him. We saw it more as something positive than negative in his development as a coach.

"For us, it was more important to see the person’s qualities and way of working. We think that, as long as these things are aligned with the club, it is more important than having concrete experience of the championship, because we also thought that with a technical staff around him who has this Championship experience, it would help him a lot. That’s how we conducted our thinking."

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus' praise for Regis Le Bris at Sunderland

Louis-Dreyfus continued by lauding Le Bris, albeit in a somewhat different light. While results will have doubtless pleased the Sunderland top-brass, Louis-Dreyfus has offered a fresh frame on Le Bris' initial success by hailing his mentality and determination, two core traits which have shone through in his time on Wearside thus far.

Louis-Dreyfus believes that Le Bris' ability to learn, plan and adapt quickly has played a driving force in Sunderland's rip-roaring start to the season, with the boss almost immediately getting to grips with the nature of the club and the Championship itself.

"I think the thing he really succeeded in doing was showing a lot of curiosity about the club, about the people at the club, about the supporters, about the history of the club, he learned and understood very, very quickly what type of club it is, how to work there and who the people are around," he added.

"He really, with very impressive speed, was able to understand the context in which he arrived and how to manage it.

"Four to six weeks after his arrival, he already had a very clear idea of ​​what he had to do and the context of the club. From my point of view, this is one of the things that allowed him to make this good start to the championship. It is linked to his capacity and his curiosity to understand at such speed a championship, a team, players and a completely new staff.

"It’s very difficult to say but I think that if I talk purely about the mental aspect... One thing that excites us all within the club, even before the arrival of Régis Le Bris, which we found at home and which really encouraged us to take him, is that he is relentless as they say in English," he said when quizzed on Le Bris' greatest quality.

"It’s the idea of ​​never stopping and always trying to progress and what we saw in him is that he sees the development of a team and a club as something that never stops. He is always looking at how to improve things at all levels and in all aspects.

"That is also, in terms of mentality, the thing that we were trying to do as a club. One thing that really connects us is this passion for progress, to try to improve as a club both individually and collectively."

"If I give for example a quality that is really striking in him, it is his work methodology and in particular on the development of a team collectively and individually. I think that there are a lot of coaches today who like to do a lot of different things in clubs.

"We have coaches who want to do recruitment, others who want to do other things. But him, I think that where he feels most comfortable is on a field coaching the team. We think that is where he really has extraordinary qualities. With the level of detail in his analyses and in his daily work with the players."