How Régis Le Bris, Graeme Murty and Patrick Roberts are helping Sunderland's fantastic academy bear fruit

Sunderland’s academy continues to go from strength to strength under the current ownership of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Juan Sartori.

The duo have set about employing important people at the Academy of Light. There is, of course, Kristjaan Speakman who oversees the footballing operation at the club alongside head of recruitment Stuart Harvey, who helps find Sunderland’s young gems.

Stuart English heads up the coaching side of things, and there’s also Robin Nicholls, the man charged with overseeing the day-to-day running at the Academy of Light and looking after youth loans. Then come the coaches. Jordan Moore and Fin Lynch are lead coaches for the under-18s, with Graeme Murty in charge of the age group above.

And, of course, there is first-team head coach Régis Le Bris, who has bought in wholeheartedly to Sunderland’s youth-first policy. The Frenchman, who joined the Black Cats just last summer, has an extensive background in youth development over many years from his time with Lorient.

Sunderland’s pathway for young players at the Academy of Light and its willingness to buy and play starlets in their first team is now starting to bear fruit. Of the “imports”, Trai Hume is just 22, and so too is Dennis Cirkin. Dan Ballard is 25, Aji Alese is 23, Eliezer Mayenda is still only 19 years old, as are Jobe Bellingham and Milan Aleksic. Star winger Romaine Mundle is 21, and striker Wilson Isidor is 24.

Now for the homegrown talent. Anthony Patterson is also 24, while Dan Neil is captaining his boyhood club at 23. Two-goal Tommy Watson is 18, and Chris Rigg is still, rather incredibly, just 17 years old. And there are players below first-team level, too. Matty Young, 18, has a big future. Trey Ogunsuyi, 17, is tipped as Sunderland’s next breakthrough star. Harrison Jones (19) and Zak Johnson (20) both have senior minutes under their belts this season.

The situation at Sunderland’s academy is indeed now in stark contrast to the dark days of Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven (and Juan Sartori if we’re striving for accuracy) when the best talent was sold to keep the club’s financial head above water. Now, though, Sunderland have carefully crafted a system structured specifically to get the best out of youngsters - and have employed a head coach not afraid to play young players.

“It's very positive for the club,” Le Bris said when asked about Sunderland’s academy before the Bristol City game. “And yes, from my background, I believe in young players. It's not a problem for me to play with inexperienced players because I like the surprise we can have with them and they need confidence, they need clarity about their role on the pitch.”

Le Bris added after Watson’s two goals against Stoke City: “And especially for wingers, for example, I think it's probably a little bit easier. Because you are high on the pitch, you can take many risks, and you know that your teammates and the whole team will help you if you lose duels, for example. And you just have to take risks, and probably Tommy (Watson) is in a good place because his personality fits very well with that role.”

A highly-rated youth prodigy at Manchester City and Celtic, attacking midfielder Patrick Roberts had lost his way before turning up at Sunderland during the club’s last season in League One. Despite only being 27 years of age, the attacking midfielder is one of the club’s most senior players and is enjoying his role as a mentor to Le Bris’ young pups.

“I've still been around, I think, 10 or 11 years now,” Roberts reflected after Sunderland’s game against Bristol City recently. “It's gone so quickly, you can't quite remember it all. When you're around a small, young group, it does make you feel quite old. But, at the same time, it makes me feel young. It's a strange feeling. I'm enjoying every moment. The managers have been brilliant, not just me, but all the boys. It's nice to play with these players. We can, like I said, have a few more things to tidy up on.”

Asked how good Sunderland’s young players are, Roberts added: “Like I said, I've been in a few teams now for 10 years. I've seen different things. You can see what it's like to be at the top. You can see what it's like to be at the bottom and how tough it is. On the other end of the spectrum, being in a relegation fire, you dream about playing good football and going out there and enjoying it. The fans enjoying it. That's what you live for as a footballer. Going out there, making the fans enjoy it, going home and playing well.

“They’re not just a great set of players, but they work hard and do everything for each other. That's all the manager can ask of us. That's what he instils in us. Just work hard as a team, back each other up and play good football. I think we're slowly getting there. It's a process. He's only been in a few months. We just need to keep improving. Just the small details that we need to fine-tune. Hopefully, we'll get there in the end.

“They're really exciting. Jobe, Riggy, Wilson's not so young. Dennis, Trai, I've played with a few years now. They're all a great set of young lads. Dan Neil, the captain of his boyhood club. It's good to play with these kind of players. It's a nice feeling. Hopefully, we can kick on even more. I hope I can help them in that way.”

Sunderland saw eight academy graduates in their squad against Millwall in the Championship earlier this season, with George Honeyman and Josh Coburn on the opposing side also developed by the Black Cats before moving on. You could even throw in Duncan Watmore, who was an import from Altrincham but spent a significant portion of his development at the Academy of Light before breaking through into the first team.

“We're really strong on our pathway about nurturing our talent and making sure that young players get an opportunity in our first teams,” under-21 lead coach Graeme Murty recently told The Echo. “And as much as that can be very, very flowery rhetoric, it has to be actioned and it has to be viable for the players to see it.

“They need to see it and be able to touch it and see that that pathway is a real tangible thing for them. So we think that showing them our average age across the squads, across the years, and the availability of slots within our first-team environment makes a strong case for us being at the forefront of the development of young players in the Championship, possibly in the country. We would say that we're a really, really good landing spot for young talent to really go and experience what it might be to get into a first team.”