Regis Le Bris issues update on Sunderland AFC transfer plans | OneFootball

The Frenchman has a lot of work to do and not as much time as he may have liked to do it.

New Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris has clarified where the club's position is on summer recruitment and backroom staff acquisitions.

So soon after the Frenchman arrived from Lorient, he is getting the Black Cats' squad ready for the upcoming season.

Players have returned to the Academy of Light to undergo their first few days of pre-season training, and all the buzz is about how this team is going to look under Le Bris after their disappointing campaign last time out.

At the very least, the 48-year-old should be better aligned with the higher-ups at Sunderland than Tony Mowbray was this time last year.

His vision and that of those above him were not at all the same, leading to a seemingly inevitable sacking in December.

Le Bris has now spoken, for the first time, about what's to come in terms of style of play, transfers and recruiting in other areas.

Regis Le Bris clarifies Sunderland's recruitment policy

Speaking to the media for the first time since being appointed, Le Bris has said that he is looking to bring in a couple of players who have experience of playing in the league, and he still isn't fully sure whether the current group can implement his high-pressing style of play.

"I’m comfortable with the [recruitment] process right now," the Black Cats' head coach said, via the Sunderland Echo. "I don’t know the result because it is very complex. I’m comfortable with the process.

"The team is young but the two previous seasons they gained some experience so I think it’s useful for the next events. We are looking at one or two more experienced players for the Championship. These kind of players could be young, could be older."

Mowbray wanted to bring in a similar type of player last summer - ones with more knowhow and nous - but his ideas largely fell on deaf ears, according to the Northern Echo.

The French boss also confirmed that they are on the hunt for people to add to his backroom staff, as well as players, but that those potential candidates would not be coming over from France, as per the Sunderland Echo.

Previous reports had suggested that Sunderland were in talks to bring two members of their new head coach's former backroom setup, Jean-Marie David and Erwann Le Postec, to the Stadium of Light, as per Graham Falk.

Non-French backroom staff appointments feels like more exercising of control by Sunderland hierarchy

If you had to hire someone to work with you, wouldn't the easiest and most sensible option be to hire people that you knew and had worked with in the past, over an unknown quantity?

That feels logical, right? Granted, Le Bris and his former assistants just got Lorient relegated to Ligue 2, so he might want a fresh start in terms of the people that he works with.

But this does smell a bit like Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus having things their way rather than letting the coach dictate things, when it comes to on-the-pitch matters.