Sunderland are preparing for a crucial summer transfer window after a successful first campaign back at Premier League level

Régis Le Bris believes Sunderland will be well set for the summer transfer window as a result of Florent Ghisolfi's work behind the scenes over the course of the campaign.

Ghisolfi arrived at the club last summer and led a major recruitment drive to prepare the Black Cats for the Premier League. He has since led the overhaul of the club's recruitment department, overseeing the arrival of a new team of scouts who have been assessing targets for the summer window and beyond.

Le Bris remains firmly focused on the closing fixtures of the campaign but will soon begin to feed his thoughts into the club's recruitment meetings, and believes the club will be in a good position to execute their strategy.

"Yeah, I think Flo arrived late in the transfer window last season, so the main focus was to work on the recruitment output at that minute." Le Bris said.

"After that he had now 10 months to build the recruitment structure, and they worked hard so they are really well organised. We are well connected because Flo is always connected with the recruitment stuff, and the workflow of the squad in the training sessions, but also in competition, so he can manage both sides to connect them, and I do think we'll have a better workflow for the next transfer window.

"We have a team of scouts, and they are watching different leagues with different backgrounds for the targets. So after that, they meet every two or three months to say: in this league, this target might fit this position. And Flo can challenge or support the idea. So last week, they had the second or the third meeting with the scouts and so they are moving forward.

"I repeat, I think we'll be ready. But the market is the market, it's still unpredictable."

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Though back-to-back defeats have made it considerably more unlikely, Sunderland could at this stage still qualify for European competition which would likely demand a bigger squad to cope with the increased fixture schedule. Le Bris says it has not been an active consideration at this stage but that the club will be ready if they do qualify.

Le Bris said: "At the minute, we didn't plan for this scenario [specifically]. If it happens, I repeat, we are well organised. Last season we started late, and the output was really positive, so I'm not worried about the situation.

"If we have to change the numbers or the size of the squad, we'll be ready."

Le Bris has previously said that the club are determined not to break up their squad even if interest from elite clubs in their players materialises, but added that they will be prepared to respond if so.

"We always have to expect anything to happen in football and in life," he said.

"We have our structure, we are well organised. At the same time, it gives us space and freedom to manage the unexpected. I think in football it's the case, and for the organisation as well."

What Florent Ghisolfi has previously said about the upcoming transfer window

Speaking earlier this month, Ghisolfi said Sunderland would work to improve the team this summer but that ‘stability’ was also important.

“For the summer, we will improve the team, of course, we'll try but you never know,” Ghisolfi said.

“We'll try but I think the stability will be the most important thing. The same idea as in the winter, I think will be very important. We want to build a sustainable club, this is the first thing. The second thing is, we don't need to sell for that because of the Premier League revenues. Of course, we will sell, sometimes, some players. Because also, we spoke about cycles with players, and I think it's important when we want to attract young and talented players, we need also to show that if they come to Sunderland it's not always the final destination. If they want to step up in a top club in the future of course we'll have to do [it sometimes], but we don't have the pressure for that.”

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