The last manager to lead Sunderland into three successive seasons was Steve Bruce, who left Wigan to join the Mackems in 2009. His team, captained for that single season by the ferocious Lorik Cana, finished 13th with a total of 44 points. The following year, Bruce led the Lads to a 10th-place finish, despite the controversial departure of striker Darren Bent in the January transfer window. Sadly, Bruce could not repeat that form in the following season and departed in November 2011, with the team lying 16th in the table. His replacement, Martin O’Neill, eventually guided the Black Cats to a 13th-place finish.
On Saturday, at Ipswich, Régis Le Bris will name his opening-day starting line-up for the third season in succession. In a sport where patience with coaches is notoriously short, it is a major achievement. In his first season, the calm, studious and slightly enigmatic Frenchman delivered promotion from the Championship. In his second season, he not only secured Premier League status but achieved qualification for the Europa League. Of the current Premier League managers, only Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Daniel Farke have been in post longer than Le Bris. It is testament to the club hierarchy that they identified the right character to take on the huge task of getting Sunderland back to the big time. It is also to their credit that stability and continuity within the club have played such an important role in that progression.
In the wake of promotion from the Championship, Jobe and Tommy Watson departed to create the financial headroom to recruit a swathe of new signings, to the surprise of both fans and external observers. But it wasn’t who was sold that was as significant as who stayed – Trai Hume, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien, Chris Rigg, Enzo Le Fée and Wilson Isidor had all shown potential to make the step up to the higher tier, and can all now be regarded as genuine Premier League players, while the club have enough faith in Romaine Mundle to offer him an improved contract. Those promotion-winning players were already attuned to the tactical approach and mindset that Le Bris insists on – a solid defence where midfielders and wingers are all expected to play their part, and a mentality of never giving up, which bred the ‘Til the End’ tagline.
It was into that close-knit environment that the players who joined last summer were inducted and, pretty much to a man, they have all bought into the ethos that Le Bris, aided and abetted initially by Kristjaan Speakman, and latterly Florent Ghisolfi, has been carefully crafting – only Simon Adingra and Arthur Masuaku don’t seem to have fitted the mould. In fact, with Granit Xhaka wearing the captain’s armband, the mentality that is the hallmark of Le Bris’ approach has now been strengthened, forged in the fire of Premier League football.
So, with Le Bris heading towards the opening match of his third season in charge, is it so surprising or concerning that we’ve been quiet? I would argue not. It is clear that character and mentality are of equal importance to the recruiting team as footballing ability. Jack Rodwell or Didier Ndong would never have been anywhere near the club under this regime.
Our remaining promotion heroes and our new recruits who arrived last season are all now battle-hardened, proven Premier League players – a description that could only be applied to Granit Xhaka when the team kicked off against West Ham last August. It is noticeable that, the Xhaka-to-Chelsea saga aside, none of the ‘Big Six’ have yet come sniffing around our players. Predictions of bids for the likes of Robin Roefs, Noah Sadiki and Brian Brobbey have failed, thus far, to materialise. That, in itself, is a sign that others understand this hierarchy is not to be messed with, and that this iteration of Sunderland AFC is not going to meekly accept a lower place in the food chain!
We are going into a Premier League and Europa League campaign with the coach who got us there, with the same squad of players who achieved it and, slowly, carefully and with precision, we are adding depth, experience and potential to a squad which was good enough to finish seventh in the Premier League last time around.
Could we do with a couple more signings to provide cover for injuries? Of course we could – the most obvious need we now have for cover is a midfielder who can play the Xhaka role, and an additional option up front. But the recruitment team will not be rushed into signing a player who isn’t aligned with the values of the club and those already in the squad. And, as the Méthalie saga has shown, they will not make a deal that goes beyond their valuation of a player’s worth.
The change in approach to recruitment is to be expected – we are now spending ‘big club’ sums on players. Twelve months ago, the club had clearly prepared for promotion, with a mix of experienced players and young prospects on the wanted list. But if £10m on Alderete or Nordi had not paid off so spectacularly last season, it would not have been a disaster. Now, with the increased focus on the Europa League, financial limits and the higher calibre of player needed to improve our squad, it should come as no surprise that the recruitment team are taking an even more forensic approach – the margin for error has reduced exponentially.
Stability and continuity are not terms that most Sunderland fans would associate with our club in the early years of the last decade. Now they are values which underpin the progression that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has overseen. This is a squad which, under the guidance of Le Bris, is ripe for evolution – there’s no need for revolution. For the first time in years, the need before the transfer window closes is for fine-tuning, adding the finishing flourishes to a squad already full of talent and experience.
The coming season will be, arguably, the most challenging that any Sunderland side has faced since 1973, when winning the FA Cup piled European football and enormous expectations on a side which had already achieved far beyond what they should have been capable of.
The situation now could not be more different – this is a squad just beginning to fulfil its potential, founded on a platform of stability and continuity which has been carefully constructed. If there are only two more arrivals during the transfer window, I would be neither surprised nor disappointed. Stability and continuity have already given Sunderland a very strong squad.
Perhaps the most significant indicator of where we currently stand is the absence, in this article, of any reference to what is going on up the road. I spent the early part of the summer mercilessly trolling the neighbours as to whether our great season had broken them, and ridiculing their horrific home kit. Until now, they were conspicuous by their absence in my thoughts when writing this.
Until Derby Day rolls around, they have become irrelevant.