I normally write lengthy pieces for Roker Report. For a change, this one will be relatively short and sweet.
Why?
Régis Le Bris.
When he arrived just over a year ago, he had relatively little time with the squad before being launched into a Championship campaign. Yet he quickly identified the players who would work well in the system he intended to play, and embedded a structure that had been absent in the latter stages of Tony Mowbray’s tenure and certainly through the best-forgotten Beale/Dodds era.
Since the ecstatic scenes at Wembley, the club has moved quickly to strengthen the squad. The impact of the French influence is obvious with Diarra and Sadiki – like Le Fée, these are players Le Bris will have seen at close quarters.
Others – Adingra, Talbi – fit both the system Le Bris favours, and the model that has brought the club back to the Premier League – young players whose value could skyrocket, as potentially will the aforementioned Diarra’s and Sadiki’s.
What is different about this season is the arrival of seasoned, proven players – those who have seen and done it in the Premier League or top European leagues. Many are already established internationals.
Granit Xhaka is the type of signing who really should be beyond the reach of a newly promoted club, and yet he will be pulling on the famous red and white stripes and the captain’s armband. Arthur Masuoku is another with both Premier League and extensive European experience.
Reinildo Mandava has arrived, fresh from working under one of the most demanding coaches in European football – Diego Simeone. Omar Alderete made La Liga’s team of the season. Both are established international players.
If reports from Holland are to be believed, the top clubs in the Netherlands have missed a huge opportunity, so Robin Roefs will don the keeper’s jersey that so many young Europeans have excelled in – Poom, Sørenson and Mignolet to name but a few.
Added to the likes of Trai Hume, that is the basis of a defence that will not be easy for even the top teams to penetrate.
All of those positive indicators are cause for optimism. But, for me, the biggest factor in that optimism is Régis Le Bris. He will undoubtedly have had a significant influence on the players who have been recruited.
He is quiet, considered, and has a clear vision of how he wants his squad to play football. He gained the confidence of the players he inherited. When tested, he managed the playoff run in and the difficult situation with Tommy Watson, with his own firm, calm, and diplomatic style. It was an approach that was utterly vindicated against Coventry and Sheffield Utd.
This season, he has the opportunity to execute his game plan with players with a different level of ability than he has done so previously.
I have every belief that Régis Le Bris has what it takes to get our club through what will be an extremely challenging season back in the Premier League.
