‘Smart guy’ Le Bris has Sunderland on verge of glory

In the quiet north-east town of Washington, an unassuming Frenchman with a professorial manner pounds the streets deep in thought, with only his Alsatian dog Tampa for company.

On his mind is how he can get the maximum out of his students at this crucial time of year.

For most students, May is exam time, just like in football, the period when the major prizes are decided and a season’s work is judged.

Prizes do not come much bigger than a place in the Premier League, which is what Sunderland and Sheffield United will aim for in the Championship play-off final on Saturday (15:01 BST).

And it is a moment that could become career defining for the Black Cats and their French head coach Regis Le Bris.

It is fair to say that when Sunderland announced the appointment of Le Bris last June, underwhelmed was the overriding emotion.

It had taken three months to find a permanent replacement for Michael Beale and the club had come up with a man who had just been relegated from Ligue 1 in France with Lorient.

But now with the Black Cats on the brink of ending an eight-year exile from the top flight, that has turned to immense pride among the club’s support.

“The fans love him,” said BBC Radio Newcastle’s Sunderland commentator Nick Barnes.

“The results are the first things that win them over, so he has achieved that.

“But they also see that he is a genuinely nice guy with a nice demeanour about him. In public and in press conferences, he smiles, he can crack a joke, he’s very patient and I think people have responded to that.”

Le Bris has led Sunderland to their highest league finish since they won the Championship in 2007 under Roy Keane – the last time they were promoted to the Premier League.

It began with four consecutive wins in their best start to a season for 99 years and they were never lower than fourth.

Their place at Wembley was secured after two tense play-off encounters with Coventry City, and arguably the greatest moment at the Stadium of Light with Dan Ballard’s 122nd-minute extra-time header sending fans into raptures.

Now on the back of that, more than 35,000 will be present under the arch to see if they can return to the top flight for the first time since 2017.

“Le Bris ticked the boxes of what we needed without us necessarily getting excited about it,” said Richard Easterbrook of Sunderland’s Wise Men Say podcast.

“What I like about him is he is calm and understated. He doesn’t get too high with victory or too carried away with defeat. He’s the perfect guy for Sunderland right now.

“I don’t think a top-two finish was realistic as we were a small fish in a pond of Premier League parachute money, so to finish fourth very comfortably is testament to him and his coaching team.

“To keep Sunderland fans happy is quite an achievement in itself as we’re a bit of an awkward bunch, but Le Bris has played it beautifully.”

Le Bris’ popularity on Wearside, aided by a great start last autumn, meant that a trip to the seafront at Roker early on in his tenure caught him by surprise when he was mobbed by fans.

Learning his lesson, this calm and considered character has since sneaked in to Newcastle on occasion to enjoy an evening out.

However, it is at the Academy of Light where this student of football is in his element.

“Regis is a bit shy, but he’s very personable and he has a wry sense of humour and he’s become a bit more comfortable in his own skin as the season has gone on,” said Barnes.

“He is very, very focused. He seems to spend his life immersed in the job. He jokingly refers to being at his happiest in front of his laptop, watching matches.

“That culminates in getting them to Wembley. That has been the one ambition all season.

“He purposely learnt English to come to this country to make a name for himself and you could argue he has done that because the season is a success, whatever happens this Saturday.”

Le Bris had a modest playing career, during which time he featured in Ligue 1 for Rennes, but this proud son of Brittany found his true calling when he turned his hand to coaching at the age of 27 with Wasquehal.

He quickly obtained his badges and was soon returning to his old club to take on a youth coaching role.

He had success there winning the French equivalent of the Youth Cup and the U18 Championship before taking on a similar job at Lorient.

Again, he was heavily involved in the youth programme, being successful with the under-17s and then becoming reserve team manager.

But behind his involvement in youth football was a burning desire to improve himself and take on a top job.

“Regis has always been very ambitious,” said Mathieu Pelicart, Lorient correspondent for regional newspaper Le Telegramme.

“While preparing to make the step up to be a number one, he had already done a few trips abroad to clubs in Germany and Spain and he had never hidden his desire to learn more about other leagues.”

His wish was granted as he took over Lorient in 2022, and after eight wins in his first 10 games the club reached second in the table.

They eventually finished 10th, but still enjoyed wins against Lyon, Lille and most notably at Paris St-Germain – a side containing Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

However, things went awry in his second season which ultimately ended with relegation on the final day.

“For many supporters, Le Bris is the person most responsible for that relegation,” said Pellicart.

“But for me, it was the club’s president, Loic Fery, who sold the club’s best players in January 2023 and then recruited badly the following summer.”

One man who had been keeping an eye on events at Lorient was the Black Cats’ French owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.

Sunderland had put together a talented but youthful squad with teenagers like Jobe Bellingham, younger brother of Real Madrid and England star Jude, and Chris Rigg and they needed a guiding hand.

And although there was no experience in English football and only two years as a number one, Le Bris was almost the perfect candidate to take this project on.

“Regis Le Bris is a pure coach,” said French football expert Julien Laurens.

“All he cares about is the training pitch, doing his sessions, transmitting his ideas across and the game itself. What surrounds that is not really for him.

“Le Bris used to be one of the best academy directors and youth-level coaches in France.

“Even if he gets Sunderland to the Premier League and is up against managers like Arne Slot, Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta – what Le Bris loves the most is coaching young players.

“He is so good at explaining to them how to get better.

“I had no doubt that moving to Sunderland could work for him, and when he looked at the videos he realised the potential.”

Growing up in Brittany, Le Bris was proud of his roots and the strong Breton cultural identity of the area.

So when deciding to leave, moving to the north-east of England may seem miles apart, but the 49-year-old has forged a strong attachment to Wearside.

“He used to be in a club in Lorient that had so much identity,” said Laurens.

“Sunderland was perfect for him. He could only have gone to a club with such a strong sense of identity and community like Sunderland has because that’s what he was used to.

“He’s a very proud Breton and he knows how much this means to people in Sunderland and in the region overall.”

If successful at Wembley, Le Bris would be the first French manager in the Premier League since Patrick Vieira left Crystal Palace in March 2023.

And with a doctorate in sport physiology and biomechanics to his name, he would certainly bring a different feel to the touchline, with behaviour associated with his countryman Arsene Wenger in his two decades at Arsenal.

“Le Bris grew up in an environment of having intellectual-type managers – Arsene Wenger types,” said Laurens.

“That really marked him as a player, and he was always going to be a similar coach to the ones he had.

“That is the view of how he sees the game. He is such a smart guy – he is very different to what we are used to in football. He is different to 90% of the other managers.”

If victorious at Wembley, this studious Frenchman will forever be a hero on Wearside – his reputation guaranteed if he writes a glorious new chapter in Sunderland’s chequered history.