Sunderland: Kristjaan Speakman clarifies Regis Le Bris' role in search for key figure | OneFootball

The Black Cats are trying to add members to the backroom staff team.

Highlights

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has provided an update on the search for new members of Regis Le Bris' backroom staff.

Early indications from the Sunderland hierarchy, way before the eventual appointment of the Black Cats' new French head coach, suggested that, for the most part, their new boss was going to have to work with what he was given, both on the playing and coaching side of things.

Speakman said, at a meeting with a fans group in March, nearly two months on from Michael Beale's sacking, that the new head coach would be allowed to bring one assistant with them, providing it was an appropriate suggestion.

Sunderland reporter Graham Falk recently said that the club were looking to bring in two members of Le Bris' staff from former club Lorient.

However, when the new boss spoke for the first time to the media, on Wednesday, he revealed that they were searching for candidates to join his team of staff, but they weren't looking for options from his homeland, as per the Sunderland Echo.

This point has now been echoed by the sporting director.

Kristjaan Speakman on Le Bris backroom staff appointments

Le Bris will have the final say on who joins his group of assistants, according to Speakman.

He added that suggestions of him and other high-ranking members at the Stadium of Light being the ultimate decision-makers on this matter was not the case.

"I think Regis is really keen to have the best, I think his phrase would be team-mates, even as staff," said the sporting director, via the Northern Echo. "And he doesn't, at the present time, have a cohort of people that he's worked with.

"That’s probably more to do with his background, and he was really, really clear that he's got a profile around the staffing structure he wants. We're currently trying to recruit another assistant to that profile.

"Then, once we have that assistant in, that will have a knock-on effect, I'm sure, in terms of where we are on the other positions and where we want to expand or where we maybe want to get some additional detail into the staffing structure."

The 48-year-old is said to be assessing the current crop of coaches, which includes former interim head coach Mike Dodds. Le Bris does want to add a set-piece specialist to the team, as per the Northern Echo, and is looking at other gaps that may need to be plugged.

"He (Le Bris) doesn't really know the people we've got here, both coaching staff and wider," continued Speakman.

"It's such a connected environment that as soon as you move one piece on the board, you might have to consider all the other pieces.

"So, at the present time, we're going through that process, which is exactly what we did last time with the last head coach (Michael Beale). Just unfortunately, the time caught up with us and we made some more significant changes."

Le Bris has a mammoth task in front of him

This is the current state of play at the Stadium of Light. We're just over a month away from the start of the new season. Sunderland are still to appoint any assistants, they have only made one signing (a back-up goalkeeper) and they are trying to recover from finishing 16th last season to being a play-off contender.

It's not going to be easy, and there are a lot of factors that are working against Le Bris at the moment.

One plus is that Chris Rigg has chosen to stay at Sunderland after signing his first professional deal with the club.

That and the new kit are pretty much the only concrete things that fans of the Black Cats can be positive about. They'll need to get things moving quickly if they are going to be fully prepared for the start of the season.