Can Régis Le Bris be Sunderland's Sir Alex?! - #onthewhistle LIVE - video Dailymotion

Phil Smith and BBC Radio Newcastle's Nick Barnes answer questions from Sunderland fans at The Bridge Hotel Vaults

Transcript

00:00Josh, who says, could Regis be our Sir Alex Ferguson?

00:03Well, there's no way he's going to put up with you for 30 years.

00:07I might not put up with him.

00:10Well, who knows?

00:11I mean, I just wondered, we wondered walking into Old Trafford on Saturday,

00:16and we saw Alex Ferguson arrive, and there was a huge roar,

00:19and Benno thought it was for him.

00:21I also thought it was for me, which I think is even worse, to be fair.

00:24But we did muse on, you know, what is going through Sir Alex Ferguson's mind

00:31about the decline since he was in charge.

00:34And he sits in that main stand, looking across to the Sir Alex Ferguson stand,

00:39and across the, you know, between the perimeter boards, between the tiers.

00:45It's all the trophies that the club have won over the years,

00:47and it's largely all Sir Alex Ferguson.

00:50And the decline since he left, you must sit there and just wonder what the hell's going on.

00:54There's one trophy missing, though.

00:56There's no Papa John's up there.

01:01I think Regis could be around for a long time.

01:03He loves it up here, and he's got a lot of power now.

01:06His ambition is clearly to be a Premier League manager,

01:09and he's in a good place here, and he can achieve a lot.

01:13It would be very interesting in a year or so, if he's still here

01:16and they're still in the Premier League,

01:18if other clubs, even Arsenal or someone, did start to sort of sniff around,

01:23thinking, you know, this is someone who can really, we can take on board,

01:28and they can do an Arsene Wenger or they can do an Alex Ferguson,

01:31because he is so focused and driven.

01:35And, you know, I think he could walk into any Premier League team

01:39and do a job, and that's the worry.

01:41But, as you say, the appeal is, for him at the minute,

01:45he's doing a fantastic job here, and he obviously likes it here.

01:47I think he probably likes the relative anonymity as well,

01:50because he's not one who courts the media.

01:52He's not one who likes it.

01:53He's not one who's comfortable with that.

01:55So, at the moment, you know, he's in a good place.

01:58And he'll want to stay at the leaders in the Europe next year, of course.

02:01So...