Sunderland set to pay compensation for relegated manager who looked certain to be sacked


 
 
 
 
 
 

I hadn’t been taking much notice of what was happening at Sunderland.

However, I saw something the other day that after having sacked Tony Mowbray in December 2023 and then Michael Beale in February 2024, the Mackems have now not had a manager for over four months and counting.

Michael Dodds was put in temporary caretaker charge and Sunderland had an absolutely disastrous end to last season, winning only two of their final 15 second tier matches and losing ten of them. Relegation form in anybody’s money if that continues into the new season.

All the more baffling that Sunderland hadn’t managed to appoint anybody to start and try to rebuild (paper over the cracks), with the Championship kicking off in only seven weeks time.

There again, no surprise that they have struggled to find a credible candidate to take the job.

Just counting up there and it appears the new Sunderland manager will be the ninth they have had since last playing Premier League football in 2017.

Finally though, Sunderland appear to have got their man.

Over in France, GFFN report that Lorient boss Regis Le Bris is set to be officially announced as the new Sunderland manager.

Despite having the eighth biggest budget in Ligue 1 last season and backed with significant investments such as Benjamin Mendy, Isaak Touré, Mohamed Bamba, and Formose Mendy among others, Regis Le Bris oversaw a disatrous season of just 29 points and relegation just one step above rock bottom. This was a serious collapse for a club that had finished tenth the previous season on 55 points.

GFFN report that the fact Sunderland are set to pay compensation for Regis Le Bris is a significant shift, for a manager that Lorien were reportedly looking to sack.

It all sounds very much like when Freddie Shepherd and John Hall made the shocking and disastrous decision to sack Sir Bobby Robson after only four games of the season Two draws and two defeats) and replace him with Graeme Souness (two draws and two defeats in his opening four Blackburn games of the season) who was allegedly going to be sacked by Rovers, only for Newcastle Uniyed astonishingly to pay compensation for Souness’ release. A shocking decision never matched until compensation was paid for Steve Bruce to take him  from Sheffield Wednesday after Mike Ashley forced Rafa Benitez out.

GFFN reporting:

‘It seemed imminent that Le Bris would be fired, but instead, Les Merlus will be collecting a compensation fee from Sunderland.

There is no escaping the fact that relegation was a shocking failure. At no point in the season did it look like Le Bris had the means to turn results around and free the club from this fate.

It makes it all the more surprising that Sunderland have swooped in for Le Bris at a point where there are still more questions than answers about his potential as a head coach. And ultimately this is the problem when attempting to consider what the English side can expect from a manager who has managed less than a hundred games at the senior level.’

Reading the above, if indeed Regis Le Bris (or indeed anybody else) gets the job, I wouldn’t be putting any money on him lasting the season…