Latest news with #RégisLeBris
Times
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Jobe Bellingham and play-off hero leaving but no spoiling Sunderland party
At the bottom of the northwest ramp of Wembley Stadium, hidden well away from the public eye, a team bus with a giant black cat and the prophetic words 'Til The End' painted on its side sat patiently, engine running, waiting. It was quarter-to-eight on Saturday night and the Sky Bet Championship play-off squad it had dropped off earlier in the day were climbing back up its steps as Premier League players. They carried with them crates of ale, large magnums of champagne and absolute joy. The spectacle of a celebration in front of 36,500 Sunderland supporters had been replaced with something far more intimate — hugs with friends after achieving something very special. Two elements stood out even amid the delirium and the huge, booming party-box speaker that Trai Hume carried with Oasis's Wonderwall blasting out; Sunderland collectively looked both exhausted and surprised to have reached the Premier League. Kristjaan Speakman, the director of football who had masterminded promotion with a squad that cost only £17.5million, wore the tracksuit top of Jobe Bellingham, with the player's first name emblazoned on the back. He looked almost euphoric. Régis Le Bris, the Sunderland head coach, was back in his preferred tracksuit, having created a piece of history in a suit. 'Probably I spend time in France because I stay 11 months here without moving,' he said of his summer plans. 'So let's spend time with family and friends, relax, and enjoy and be prepared for the next season.' He looked shattered. It was 48 hours before the play-off final against Sheffield United that ended with another dramatic, late Sunderland winning goal — this time through Tommy Watson, now no longer even a Sunderland player — that Le Bris said: 'When you have your opportunity, it is important to catch it.' It sounded so much more poetic in a French accent, profound even. It was just that having caught their butterfly in such dramatic and unexpected fashion — Sunderland finished 16th in 2023-24 — there was no collective desire to open up their hands and look at what they had actually got hold of. If it was a day for footballing romantics — the youngest team in the division had just defeated a team with parachute payments. The maths and planning could wait, although they will not wait for long. One of Le Bris' favoured and repeated phrases is about the connections inside his team and inside the club. He reiterated that when asked if the club is ready for the Premier League. 'I think Sunderland is still building their structure and we have to make another step, an important step, to prepare the squad for the Premier League but we will see in a few days,' he said. Can the club make the step, he was asked. 'I hope so, I hope so,' the 49-year-old manager said. 'We need to remember that the connection between players is more important than the talent of one player. Sometimes we forget it's a collective sport and a collective effort. The main point is the way we work together.' Yet despite the tiredness and the desire to party as they descended from that same team bus at the Renaissance Hotel in St Pancras with it still light on Saturday evening, the change had already started. Enzo Le Fée is a Sunderland player in all but announcement, his transfer having been triggered in the immediacy of promotion. The £20million fee — which is what the 25-year-old French midfielder would cost if all add-ons are triggered — is more the rest of the squad put together cost. The most Sunderland had previously spent on a player since their relegation from the Premier league in 2016-17 was the £3million they paid for Will Grigg at the start of 2019. So, regardless of a collective desire to enjoy the moment, the change had started. Watson, the 19-year-old local lad jeered in April and cheered in May, had become a Brighton & Hove Albion player in a deal agreed nearly two months ago for £10million. One out and one in, and that will be the way once the plan to try to keep Sunderland in the Premier League is finalised and activated. The 'Jobe' tracksuit worn by Speakman felt significant too. Speakman has been at the heart of both Bellingham careers, having previously worked as the academy manager at Birmingham City from 2011 when Jude was making his way. It is not thought that promotion will alter the career plan of the 19-year-old Jobe, with Borussia Dortmund still likely to be his new home when Sunderland kick off as a Premier League club in less than 12 weeks' time. 'I take a lot of pride in saying that I am one of the players who has helped this great club get back to where it belongs,' he said. It would be out of kilter with everything Sunderland have done since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus became the majority owner in May 2023 to expect a transfer window spree to match that of Southampton last summer, who also went up via the play-offs and had a gross spend of £103million, and still ended up relegated earlier in the season than any other club previously in the history of the Premier League, with seven games remaining. Anthony Patterson, the Sunderland goalkeeper who made a crucial save from Andre Brooks when Sheffield United had already taken the lead through Tyrese Campbell's first-half goal, believes the club can end the trend of the previous six clubs promoted from the Championship over the past two seasons, who were all immediately relegated. 'The quality you saw out there was really good,' Patterson, 25, said. 'We have unreal amounts of quality to see what we can do in the Premier League and the togetherness we have as a group is incredible. 'It's going to be an incredible season. We'll be coming up against the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Man City. It will be surreal.' It felt surreal all right, after the equaliser from Eliezer Mayenda and the 95th-minute winner from Watson, as grinning players stepped on to a team bus blasting with music. ''Til the End' has proved a marketing masterstroke, but now it is about a beginning, one of the biggest in Sunderland's history.
ITV News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- ITV News
Régis Le Bris: Sunderland's Premier League return ‘impossible to predict'
Régis Le Bris admitted it was 'impossible to predict' Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League when he took over last summer after they beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley. A stoppage-time winner from 19-year-old substitute Tommy Watson put the gloss on a remarkable campaign as they earned a return to the top flight after eight years away. Sunderland's play-off campaign included winning goals in the 89th, 122nd and 95th minute capping off a dramatic change of fortunes for a side who finished 16th last season. 'It was impossible to predict,' Le Bris said. 'They played fantastic football sometimes (last season). Against Southampton they won 5-0, so it was clear that it was possible to play very good football and to be efficient and very dominant. 'But at the same time, they were so inconstant, so my job was to give the methodology to bring this consistency.' It had looked unlikely for much of the play-off final during which the Blades had had the better of Le Bris' side, taking the lead midway through the first half through Tyrese Campbell's clipped finish. VAR denied Chris Wilder's team a second first half goal that would have put them two ahead and cruising back to the Premier League. Harrison Burrows' strike was ruled out with his team-mate Vinicius Sousa judged to have interfered with the view of goalkeeper Anthony Patterson. It gave Sunderland a lifeline that they duly clung on to haul themselves out of the Championship. First Eliezer Mayenda rifled the ball into the roof of the goal to level with 14 minutes to play, before Watson wrote himself into Wearside folklore with his final touch of the ball for the club before departing for Brighton. 'We need talented players, we need strong connections between them," Le Bris added. "I think they deserve this. 'They worked so well together. This game is a good example of the season.'
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘We stayed connected': Régis Le Bris hails Sunderland's character in playoff triumph
Régis Le Bris said the 19-year-old Tommy Watson's dramatic stoppage-time winner to clinch Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League encapsulated a rollercoaster season and suggested team spirit will be key if they are to cope with the step up next season. The French head coach masterminded Sunderland's return to the top flight after eight years in his first season at the club. Watson, a 73rd-minute substitute, scored in the fifth minute of added time to complete a dream comeback victory after Eliezer Mayenda cancelled out Tyrese Campbell's well-taken opener. Watson, who joined Sunderland aged eight, will move to Brighton next month after the clubs agreed a £10m deal in April, but the forward gave his boyhood club the perfect parting gift. 'We'll see each other in the Premier League next year, in the big time,' Watson said. The finale brought more joyous scenes for Sunderland, who had reached Wembley thanks to Dan Ballard's header in the final minute of extra time in their semi-final second-leg victory over Coventry, but playoff agony for Sheffield United. 'At the end this game is a good example of the season,' Le Bris said. 'Emotionally, it's impressive … The end of the second leg was absolutely crazy. It was the case again, to create this connection, this emotion, these memories for the fans and for us. We need to live these tough moments and it will be really important in my life.' Sunderland finished 16th in the division last season and a young side – on average they fielded the youngest team in the Championship this campaign – triumphed despite falling behind to Campbell's strike at Wembley. 'We showed a strong character even when we are not dominant, even when we struggle as a squad,' said the former Lorient manager. 'We stayed connected, we stuck to our plan and maybe later in the game we found an opportunity to change the momentum.' One of Sunderland's stars, the 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham, is the subject of strong interest from Borussia Dortmund, while the 17-year-old Chris Rigg also has outside admirers, but Le Bris stressed it is a team game. 'We need to remember that the connection between players is often more important than the talent of one player,' he said. 'For me as a manager and in football in general sometimes we forget that it is a collective sport and effort. We tend to focus on one talent but it's not the main point, it's about the way we work together.' A deflated Chris Wilder, a boyhood Blades fan who was in the crowd when United were beaten in the playoffs by Wolves and Burnley in 2003 and 2009 respectively, conceded defeat was a bitter blow. 'We had an opportunity to change the narrative around the playoffs and we've not taken it,' the United manager said. Wilder also questioned the use of the video assistant referee system, which was influential in disallowing Harrison Burrows's volley at 1-0, when the offside Vinícius Souza was deemed to have interfered with the view of Anthony Patterson in Sunderland's goal. 'We play 46 games, two playoff games and all of a sudden it's a subjective decision by the referee,' he said. 'I don't think the goalkeeper saves it, I don't think he gets anywhere near it. I thought it gave them a lifeline with some real energy.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Wilder said the manner of Sunderland's goals was painful from his perspective. 'We don't secure the ball at the top of the pitch, the middle of the park is wide open and it's amazing what the stories bring up, a local lad who is on his way to Brighton counters and finds a fabulous position and a finish and then the game has gone past us, it's 97, 98 minutes, so fairytale stuff for the boy and Sunderland,' Wilder said. 'For us, it's going to take quite a while to get over it.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sunderland draw on enthusiasm of the underdog to secure playoff success
Sunderland are Premier League again and they deserve it. They earned the right thanks to a season of hard toil and nerveless endeavour. They sealed the deal by staring down more experienced opponents in this playoff final, expressing an appetite for victory that would not be quenched. Two goals of top-flight quality got them over the line, and delirious communion with their supporters at the final whistle sealed a small moment in history. They don't talk much about the romance of the playoffs, they're just too brutal for that. A year's work can be overturned in an instant. A collective loss of form, an individual lack of concentration, and years of planning and ambition can be set on fire. The playoffs break hearts more than they make dreams come true and, often, celebrations at Wembley are followed by tears just a year later. Advertisement Related: Sunderland snatch promotion to Premier League by beating Sheffield United in playoff final Sunderland may well return to the second tier next summer, but in the way they embraced their task at Wembley on Saturday was a reminder that the things wise men say are always there to be challenged. Régis Le Bris' team had upended all expectations this season by holding on to the coattails of the Championship's parachute clubs with a squad of unheralded and youthful talent. For the first 70 minutes, it looked as if they might be edged out by a team that was a little cannier and with the kind of bench that only Premier League revenues can buy. But they stuck to their aims, rode the shifts in momentum, Le Bris made his changes and Eliezer Mayenda and Tommy Watson did not think twice before seizing their moments in front of goal. It was Patrick Roberts who made the equaliser, his pass with the outside of the right boot cutting through the Blades' midfield and beyond the outstretched Jack Robinson to find Mayenda who rifled the ball in the top corner. Roberts was one of four players in the squad who had featured against Wycombe in the League One playoff final three years ago. A second, Luke O'Nien, was the first to congratulate Mayenda, bursting from the bench despite having exited the play himself after just eight minutes with a dislocated shoulder. Advertisement In added time, Watson decided the match by latching on to a horrible mistake by Kieffer Moore to hit a shot just as unerring as Mayenda's, but this time low and from range, into the corner. The 19-year-old tore his shirt off and burst towards the stands, his eyes sharp, his fist clenched. Another Sunderland academy graduate, Watson has played just 900 minutes of league football in his career. He has also already agreed a £10m deal to move to Brighton this summer. In that one detail you are reminded of the limits of any misty-eyed thinking when it comes to English football in the 21st century. Watson is unlikely to be the only young talent to move on from the Stadium of Light this summer. Jobe Bellingham, imperious at the base of the Sunderland midfield, has already been linked with following in his brother's footsteps and a move to Borussia Dortmund. There will be suitors for creative midfielder Chris Rigg and full back Trai Hume, whose crossing was a constant danger. But Sunderland did not allow themselves to be overtaken by cynicism. Instead they chose to dream: of glory, of success through conviction, of completing a turnaround for a club seen as a basket case just a few years ago. They were backed in equal part by their supporters, who made the noise before the game, during and, of course, afterwards. Sunderland had the highest average attendance in the Championship this past season at 40,000, a figure that would see them ninth biggest in the top flight too. They are a big club in most of the ways that matter. But in this match, in this moment, they drew on the motivation and the enthusiasm of the underdog. Their opponents, meanwhile, gave off the air of a side that have reached the heights and been chastened by what they found. Advertisement After dominating early proceedings and leading through a Tyrese Campbell goal, Sheffield United dropped off after a Harrison Burrows' goal was overturned by VAR for an infringement by Moore. They dug in on the edge of their box and invited Sunderland on. The steady stream of former Premier League players from the bench – Ben Brereton Díaz (later subbed off again), Tom Davies – could not change the dynamic. A year after a chastening Premier League relegation there was a sense that the Blades just did not want promotion as much and swathes of empty seats suggested their supporters felt the same. Sunderland may yet find themselves bearing the same emotional scars, but as they contemplate a season among the Premier League giants they have a window in which to think big. They look determined to embrace it.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Sunderland draw on enthusiasm of the underdog to secure playoff success
Sunderland are Premier League again and they deserve it. They earned the right thanks to a season of hard toil and nerveless endeavour. They sealed the deal by staring down more experienced opponents in this playoff final, expressing an appetite for victory that would not be quenched. Two goals of top-flight quality got them over the line, and delirious communion with their supporters at the final whistle sealed a small moment in history. They don't talk much about the romance of the playoffs, they're just too brutal for that. A year's work can be overturned in an instant. A collective loss of form, an individual lack of concentration, and years of planning and ambition can be set on fire. The playoffs break hearts more than they make dreams come true and, often, celebrations at Wembley are followed by tears just a year later. Sunderland may well return to the second tier next summer, but in the way they embraced their task at Wembley on Saturday was a reminder that the things wise men say are always there to be challenged. Régis Le Bris' team had upended all expectations this season by holding on to the coattails of the Championship's parachute clubs with a squad of unheralded and youthful talent. For the first 70 minutes, it looked as if they might be edged out by a team that was a little cannier and with the kind of bench that only Premier League revenues can buy. But they stuck to their aims, rode the shifts in momentum, Le Bris made his changes and Eliezer Mayenda and Tommy Watson did not think twice before seizing their moments in front of goal. It was Patrick Roberts who made the equaliser, his pass with the outside of the right boot cutting through the Blades' midfield and beyond the outstretched Jack Robinson to find Mayenda who rifled the ball in the top corner. Roberts was one of four players in the squad who had featured against Wycombe in the League One playoff final three years ago. A second, Luke O'Nien, was the first to congratulate Mayenda, bursting from the bench despite having exited the play himself after just eight minutes with a dislocated shoulder. In added time, Watson decided the match by latching on to a horrible mistake by Kieffer Moore to hit a shot just as unerring as Mayenda's, but this time low and from range, into the corner. The 19-year-old tore his shirt off and burst towards the stands, his eyes sharp, his fist clenched. Another Sunderland academy graduate, Watson has played just 900 minutes of league football in his career. He has also already agreed a £10m deal to move to Brighton this summer. In that one detail you are reminded of the limits of any misty-eyed thinking when it comes to English football in the 21st century. Watson is unlikely to be the only young talent to move on from the Stadium of Light this summer. Jobe Bellingham, imperious at the base of the Sunderland midfield, has already been linked with following in his brother's footsteps and a move to Borussia Dortmund. There will be suitors for creative midfielder Chris Rigg and full back Trai Hume, whose crossing was a constant danger. But Sunderland did not allow themselves to be overtaken by cynicism. Instead they chose to dream: of glory, of success through conviction, of completing a turnaround for a club seen as a basket case just a few years ago. They were backed in equal part by their supporters, who made the noise before the game, during and, of course, afterwards. Sunderland had the highest average attendance in the Championship this past season at 40,000, a figure that would see them ninth biggest in the top flight too. They are a big club in most of the ways that matter. But in this match, in this moment, they drew on the motivation and the enthusiasm of the underdog. Their opponents, meanwhile, gave off the air of a side that have reached the heights and been chastened by what they found. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion After dominating early proceedings and leading through a Tyrese Campbell goal, Sheffield United dropped off after a Harrison Burrows' goal was overturned by VAR for an infringement by Moore. They dug in on the edge of their box and invited Sunderland on. The steady stream of former Premier League players from the bench – Ben Brereton Díaz (later subbed off again), Tom Davies – could not change the dynamic. A year after a chastening Premier League relegation there was a sense that the Blades just did not want promotion as much and swathes of empty seats suggested their supporters felt the same. Sunderland may yet find themselves bearing the same emotional scars, but as they contemplate a season among the Premier League giants they have a window in which to think big. They look determined to embrace it.
