Sunderland have never won the first five league games of a season. Given their first official fixture was in 1880, this is a remarkable shortcoming. They are a club who have been champions of England six times, runners-up on five occasions and have won 10 promotions.
And yet, in their 144 years, Sunderland have not given their fans five straight league wins at the beginning of a campaign.
On Saturday it could change: Sunderland make the long trip to Plymouth Argyle having won their first four fixtures in the 2024-25 Championship. Cardiff City, Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley and Portsmouth have been beaten, and by a combined score of 10-1. The single goal Sunderland conceded came in the last minute of that fourth game. The Wearsiders have been exciting and mean.
They are top of the division, Plymouth are third-bottom. Both have new managers — the celebrated Wayne Rooney at Plymouth, the relatively unknown Regis Le Bris at Sunderland. It is Le Bris (whose surname rhymes with ‘kiss’) who has had the more positive impact and been named August’s Championship manager of the month.
What is going on?
It is the question every Sunderland fan was asking, in frustration, not very long ago. Sunderland finished last season 16th in the 24-team Championship; they lost more games at home than they won; they were beaten in 10 of their last 15 matches overall and scored once in the final six of them.
Having dismissed, unconvincingly, Tony Mowbray last December, Sunderland appointed Michael Beale, equally unconvincingly. Beale lasted nine weeks. Coach Mike Dodds stepped up, but performances flattened.
In mid-May, Will Still, a coach Sunderland had approached before, visited the Stadium of Light. Still, released by Reims of Ligue 1, the top division of French football, was a free agent. A fortnight later, however, Still decided against Sunderland and later joined Lens, back in Ligue 1.
Sunderland had held discussions with the Dutchman Pascal Jansen, most recently of AZ Alkmaar in his homeland, but had second thoughts. There were interviews with other candidates. The season ended with the club managerless and the fans baffled. So they moaned… and bought 32,000 season tickets.
Then on June 22, out of nowhere — aka, Lorient, in north-west France — Le Bris was announced as the new head coach. Lorient had just been relegated from Ligue 1. The previous season, Le Bris’ first as head coach after a decade in the club’s system, Lorient had finished 10th, a jump from their 16th place the season before.
In north-east England, there was an element of ‘Arsene Who?’ about the appointment. But Le Bris, 48, has impressed off the pitch with his calm intelligence; and on it, his players have validated his arrival with four vibrant displays.
It is 30 games too early to be talking about promotion back to the Premier League after eight years away, of course. But Sunderland supporters can relish the change. The mood of May has been transformed, replica jerseys have flown off the shelves in record numbers, Jack Clarke has been sold but, to date, not been missed.
And now a piece of club history beckons.
Two weeks after 2,000 supporters made the 660-mile (1,000km) round trip to Portsmouth to see that fourth consecutive win, 2,000 are expected to make the 800-mile round trip to Plymouth.
They may be singing the whole way home.
If a feature of his press conferences has been a slight, understandable restraint in speaking candidly in his second language, Le Bris works methodically through his growing English vocabulary as he listens and absorbs questions. Then, occasionally, he replies: “It’s complex.”
He did it again on Thursday, pre-Plymouth, in the press room at Sunderland’s training ground. And in his office half an hour later, he answers a query from The Athletic regarding his pre-game persona the same way.
Sunderland have taken the lead in minutes 18, 11, 26 and 31 in their four games, and have led each one at half-time. Early energy has brought subsequent breathing space and ceded territory. At 42.9 per cent, Sunderland’s average possession is the third lowest in the second tier.
But that tenacity at kick-off is unmissable. Is Le Bris giving rousing team talks?
“In the dressing room, I’m very calm,” he replies, in very good English.
“The responsibility is with the players, and they need to feel that: ‘I won’t be on the pitch — you’ll be on the pitch. Maybe I can help solve problems when the game starts because I have experience. But it’s your responsibility, it’s not mine’.”
He pauses, then adds: “So, if I’m too vocal or prescriptive before, it’s not correct. In France, I was the same. It’s complex, difficult to explain.”
But he does then explain, via his Lorient experience. The team from Brittany, where Le Bris is also from, won eight of the opening 10 games of his first season, 2022-23. Having been working within the club previously, he knew well the 4-4-2 reputation it had under Christian Gourcuff, father of the brilliant Yoann. Le Bris understood and took it on.
“The first idea was the 4-4-2 system — very famous at Lorient,” he says. “But behind the system there were very clear management ideas about the team: we wanted to play as a unit, we wanted to share defending, share the counter-press. The concept of a unit, co-operation, association, was very important. It’s one of my main thoughts about football.”
Initially successful, Lorient dipped, or as Le Bris says of those founding ideals: “We broke them. Just some subtle changes. Two or three players becoming more selfish, it can damage the whole dynamic.”
He was making a comparison with Sunderland, where he says “the dynamic is good, but it’s still fragile, so we will see”.
Most reassuring for Le Bris, he says, is that on Wearside he has found a group of players eager to learn, to be coached. He salutes their “curiosity” and “willingness” to adapt. They look like a unit and, though all clubs want that, making it happen is the challenge.
“You can say you want to play that way, but you have to train that way, implement tactical concepts,” Le Bris says. “This is the expertise of the coach. Statements are important but you need to work and show it works.”
After he had replaced the departed Clarke and marked his selection with the goal that defeated Burnley, Romaine Mundle referred to another notable feature of Sunderland under Le Bris — defending from the front.
“It’s something we’ve been working on, getting back into a specific shape,” Mundle said. “We’ve been working a lot on that in training — defensive structure. I think that’s evident.”
Mundle, theoretically, is a left-winger and Patrick Roberts, theoretically, is a right-winger, but they have both hurried back to help in defence when Sunderland are out of possession.
“It was one of the points the manager made when he came in, how he’d like to defend — and attack,” Roberts says. “The majority of it is defending really high, pressing really high, and then when you get back into your shape, you’ve got to be really disciplined.
“For me and Ro (Mundle), it’s a shift to get in and out, but we’ll do it for the team. If we don’t do those extra yards, then you might not win the game.
“Once you get clarity from the coach on what he needs you to do, then you do it. If there’s a clear plan, it’s easier to execute, to stay tight as a group.”
The early energy which has brought quick goals and interval leads brings with it a question about sustainability. Can, for example, Chris Rigg, whose aggressive excellence in midfield at 17 is attracting ever more scouts — neighbours and bitter rivals Newcastle United’s new sporting director Paul Mitchell was at the Burnley game — maintain this intensity over a season?
Le Bris, who has studied biomechanics, replies with a laugh: “I don’t know. Efficiency is very important. It is not just about delivering maximum output, it’s about doing well with less. That’s part of our training.
“Efficiency is the key. If we can win games with less energy, I think it’s better. But we need to run. A young team with the willingness to take risks is very important to learning. We’ll have some success with that, but some we will lose, and from these failures we will learn.”
Sunderland’s team is young; an average age of 23. But there is a continuity of personnel that can be under-appreciated when, locally, the focus is on signing a new No 9.
Trai Hume has played behind Roberts for two seasons and now has a relationship with the winger; Dennis Cirkin, who played behind Clarke, is already developing one with Mundle. The quartet cost under £2million ($2.62m) in transfer fees; there has been some sharp recruitment.
Anthony Patterson, Luke O’Nien, Dan Ballard, Dan Neil, Jobe Bellingham and Rigg are others who have known each other for some time. They represent the “shared language” Le Bris mentions.
It is not all sweetness — Ahmed Abdullahi, their new striker from Belgian club Gent, was discovered to have a groin issue and underwent surgery on Thursday, while many fans still harbour questions about the current board’s ambitions and level of investment. And it’s only four games.
But, so far, Sunderland have clicked in a manner unforeseeable not so long ago.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” Roberts says repeatedly, and Plymouth away is the start of what Le Bris calls “a massive month”. Then it’s Middlesbrough, Watford, Derby and Leeds before the next international break.
Everyone, Le Bris included, will know more about Sunderland then. His response to the idea of making five-game history?
“It could happen; or not.”
(Top photo: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
