Kyril Louis-Dreyfus' cryptic Sunderland AFC head coach message explained | OneFootball

The club's lengthy head coach search was ended on Saturday when Regis Le bris was announced as the new first team boss.

The identity of the head coach that Sunderland's owner and chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said was going to be appointed "imminently" at the start of the month has been revealed.

News on Saturday night of Regis Le Bris' official appointment as Sunderland's next head coach ended the four-month saga that hung over the Stadium of Light like a dark cloud.

The hierarchy's decision to wait out the rest of the season with Mike Dodds in charge, instead of bringing in someone new before the end of the 2023/24 campaign, in which they slowly sunk down to 16th in the table, is not one that has curried much favour with supporters.

A season that was supposed to be centred around at least a play-off push ended up with two managers being sacked and an interim boss being in place for much longer than the second permanent dugout occupier had.

A message to the Black Cats' fans that was put out near the start of June by Louis-Dreyfus said that Michael Beale's eventual replacement was expected to be appointed "imminently."

He continued: "We appreciate the patience and support that we've received from you throughout the summer and our aim has always been to ensure that the right candidate is appointed. That outcome remains our focus.

"On and off the field, we have learnt from last season when we fell short of all our expectations. We are hungry and ambitious for success and determined to ensure we all enjoy a great 2024-25 season together."

While this provided some clarity to supporters on the rough timeline of the upcoming appointment, it didn't give away much else.

It came around a week after former Stade Reims manager Will Still turned down Sunderland in favour of RC Lens, so it was obvious that he was not the man that Louis-Dreyfus was referring to.

But who he was talking about has now been revealed.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus' "imminently" appointed head coach revealed

The club's new 48-year-old French boss is the man that their young owner was speaking about in his message to fans at the start of the month, according to the Northern Echo.

After some talks were held with Le Bris and his camp, the powers that be at the Stadium of Light believed that he was the man for them, after a strong indication that he was: "100 per cent committed to the role," as per the Echo.

After that announcement was made by Louis-Dreyfus, it took three weeks for wind of him being the leading candidate to be reported on, and slightly longer for the deal to be formally announced.

Delays were caused by Le Bris' initially failed attempt to get a UK work permit, which then had to be appealed in order to make sure that he could get one, and then talks with his now former club Lorient over a compensation fee took longer than expected to be agreed upon, according to the Echo.

Sunderland's risky strategy

If Black Cats fans hold the view of 'Well you took long enough to find the right man, he better be the right man', that is totally understandable and fair.

Four months of uncertainty and missing out on preferred targets eventually led to this, but Le Bris being a success is not guaranteed.

Louis-Dreyus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman would prefer you to look past last season, where their new head coach was relegated to Ligue 2 with Lorient.

Of course there are upsides to him, with his ability to develop younger players probably being one of the key aspects that Louis-Dreyfus and others liked.

He did also lead Lorient to a surprise league finish of 10th two seasons ago when they initially looked like strong candidates to be relegated.