Will Sunderland stick by Régis Le Bris come what may this season? #onthewhistle

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith discusses with BBC Radio Newcastle's Nick Barnes at the Sunderland Echo's On The Whistle live show, filmed at The Bridge Hotel Vaults

Transcript

00:00his new contract, especially after his unforgettable first season with us.

00:03Do you think he will have the full-back from the club for the whole season,

00:07irrespective of results, or might he be another one of those clubs

00:10where he's replaced by Christmas?

00:16Well, it's a results-driven business, isn't it?

00:19I mean, if it does turn out that it's, you know, by November, December,

00:25that it's gone, you know, belly up,

00:27knowing the way that Kirill's worked in the past,

00:32I wouldn't be at all surprised if he pulled the trigger.

00:36But I do think that Rajis has got people around him

00:39that will protect him to a degree,

00:41but I think, you know, I think ultimately,

00:45looking at the money they've spent and their determination to stay,

00:49they've invested too much in it for it to go wrong,

00:52if you see what I mean.

00:53I think Rajis is not Teflon.

00:56If it's not working.

00:59And he'll know that he'd accept it.

01:02I think he's, in the same way that Tony Mowbray was absolutely right,

01:06he always used to say to us,

01:08oh, it's fantastic, I can get you promoted,

01:10but if I've lost the first ten games, I'll get sacked.

01:12And he had no bones about it.

01:14He said, they'll sack me.

01:16And I think Rajis will be,

01:17there's a lot of Tony in Rajis.

01:19And I think Rajis Debris will have much the same mindset.

01:23I think the, I would be a little bit,

01:26I think he has a better chance than most managers who bring a team up

01:30from the Championship of staying the course.

01:32I think for a few reasons.

01:33One is that, I think you can actually see the way,

01:35while some of them have been really ambitious and maybe surprisingly so,

01:38I think they've deliberately spent most of the money on much younger players.

01:41And the obvious upside of that is,

01:43once they've had a year's Premier League experience,

01:45if the worst comes to the worst,

01:47you know, you can claw a lot of that money back.

01:49And in some cases, you might even make a profit.

01:51And I still think that Sunderland's view will be that,

01:54if we come back down in the Championship,

01:55Rajis is the best man to take us back up.

01:58So I think that he's in a much stronger position than most managers,

02:02when teams get promoted.

02:04I think as long as Sunderland are very competitive,

02:06and I think they will be,

02:07I think they will do their level best to stick by him.

02:11And I think his position internally is pretty strong.

02:14Like, he has a much stronger voice.

02:16I think it's clear.

02:16It's clear he has.

02:18It's clear he's got a voice in terms of transfers,

02:21which Tony didn't have before and so on.

02:25I do wonder as well,

02:26there's also the issue of if you get rid of him,

02:28who do you replace him with?

02:29It's not exactly, you know,

02:30how they've struggled to find a coach,

02:34a head coach over the last couple of years.

02:36It's clearly not, you know,

02:38they're not queuing up in terms of the profile that they want

02:41and the direction they want to travel.

02:44So, I mean, hopefully, you know, it all works.

02:48And, you know, he's...

02:49The thing is, the other side about Reggie Stabris,

02:52if it does work,

02:54he's then going to be courted by other clubs.

02:56You know, he's going to be...

02:58He's up there and other clubs will be saying,

03:00oh, hang on a minute, here's a manager.

03:02And he's ambitious, you know,

03:03he's someone who's clearly,

03:06over the last few years,

03:08he's got his career path

03:09and the Premier League is part of that.

03:12And there's no doubt,

03:14at the moment,

03:14he'd love it to be Sunderland

03:15and he'd love to achieve, you know,

03:16massive success with Sunderland.

03:18But, you know,

03:19knowing how he works and who he is

03:21and how driven he is,

03:23you know,

03:24who knows if, you know,

03:26a top six club or something came knocking on the door.

03:28Nah, he loves the AL-10.

03:29I don't know.

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