Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris has plenty of admirers.

Former Girondins de Bordeaux sporting director Alain Roche has opened up on his attempts to lure Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris to the club earlier in his career.

Before transitioning into a more prominent dugout role, the Black Cats boss was a well-respected figure in youth development circles, and had initially worked in the academy systems of both Stade Rennais and FC Lorient - his last club before making the move to England last summer.

And in a fresh interview with Canal+, Roche has admitted that before Le Bris graduated from his academy position to head coach at Lorient, he made an attempt to poach him for Bordeaux.

What did Alain Roche say about Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris?

Speaking about Le Bris, the pundit said: “Did I try to recruit him when I was sporting director at Girondins de Bordeaux? Yes, the information is good, that’s true. We got fired, so we didn’t have the time. But I spoke with him two or three times, and it was extremely interesting, because he really has well-established principles about the game.

“He’s a guy who can get the best out of players, help them progress. He’s calm, he’s precise. You have a PowerPoint presentation, and it’s perfect. He exudes a tremendous serenity that we’re currently seeing on the Sunderland bench. I wanted him for the youth academy, yes, I wanted him to be the academy director. But he told me, ‘Listen, Alain, that’s kind of you, but I have other ambitions.’ I don’t think he was already thinking about being a Ligue 1 coach, because it was [Christophe] Pélissier who was at Lorient.”

When asked if he thought at the time that Le Bris held the ambition to step into senior management, Roche replied: “No, because he was 46 when I contacted him. In three years, you realise the progress. From Lorient, he goes to Sunderland, he gets them promoted to the Premier League… He’s fresh. Despite his age, he’s a young coach of that calibre. He’s reassuring for the management, and that’s been confirmed by what some Sunderland executives are saying.”

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What did Kyril Louis-Dreyfus say about Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris?

In a recent interview, when asked why he had taken the decision to appoint Le Bris before the beginning of last season, Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said: “To be honest I think there were a lot of factors that gave us the confidence in making a decision. Regis obviously came from a very disappointing spell at Lorient where he got relegated with the team, so people were surprised we chose him, but for us I think the two most important things that we were looking for is someone that is calm - and I'm sure every time you guys speak to him you can sense the calmness which I think is very important in this football club where there's a lot of highs and lows - and equally when it comes to the actual work on a day-to-day basis, the level of detail that he goes into everything he does, I've personally never seen before. When he shared us his methodology and his work we were really impressed and I think coupled with his humility and calmness we thought it could be a great match and so far so good.”

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