RLB ADMIRES SAFC FANS

Regis Le Bris has shown his appreciation to Sunderland fans as he spoke about his experience when he first came to Wearside. He also explained how he managed to get everyone pulling in the right direction by taking his time, rather than demanding everything from the first day.

INCREDIBLE PASSION

“These are people who live for Sunderland. They have an incredible passion for this club. And despite these difficult years they have been through, when I arrived last summer I found enthusiasm. The first time I met them was in front of the official club shop, when the new shirt came out. There was a 100-metre queue, with people waiting there since morning to buy the shirt. They didn’t know me, I was almost a stranger."

ALWAYS TURN UP IN NUMBERS

“The fans welcomed me super well, from day one. During the pre-season camp in Spain, 2,500 of them came to watch a friendly. Incredible. For the play-off final at Wembley, 35,000 of our tickets were snapped up while Sheffield didn’t manage to sell them all, but even at the start of the season there was great enthusiasm, despite few people believing in us.”

DEFYING EXPECTATIONS

“The season before, Sunderland had finished 16th. Opta gave us less than a 5% chance of finishing in the top 6 and a 25% chance of being relegated back to League One. We managed to overturn the predictions with the work on the pitch and with the strength of an extraordinary group, which used the common energy to obtain great results. The data is important, the statistics can help to understand certain things, but then there is the human energy that often makes the difference.”

TOOK HIS TIME

“I arrived alone, without any collaborators. Often you can think that when a foreign coach arrives, he can impose his own ideas, considering them better than the local ones or the previous ones. I didn’t do that. In the first two weeks I let the staff members work, observing their way of doing things. And then, step by step, I started to express my ideas and my concepts of football. We got to know each other quickly, both with the Sunderland collaborators and with the players. And it all worked out great.”