https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/s...-sunderland-relationship-kyril-louis-dreyfus/ REGIS LE BRIS has highlighted the key role played by Kyril Louis-Dreyfus in Sunderland’s successful return to the Premier League. Whereas some club owners can either be too hands-on or overly aloof, the Black Cats head coach feels that Louis-Dreyfus strikes just the right balance between involving himself in Sunderland’s affairs and allowing other senior figures to make their own decisions. “He trusts the process and he respects the position of everyone,” said Le Bris, whose Sunderland side return to action after the international break when they host Wolves on Saturday. “The owner is the owner and is not someone who will analyse a player and give opinions about technique, tactics etc. He trusts the people for that. “When the green light is done, so we believed, for example, that Granit (Xhaka) would be a really good signing for us, at that moment he was really important.” Louis-Dreyfus played a pivotal role in the signing of Xhaka, flying to Switzerland on his own personal plane to tie up talks with the Swiss skipper and his representatives as well as key figures at Bayer Leverkusen. The 28-year-old spent the summer working closely with sporting director, Kristjaan Speakman, and director of football, Florent Ghisolfi, to help to formulate and enact Sunderland’s transfer policy as they prepared to return to the top-flight. The decision to sign Xhaka highlighted a willingness to make exceptions to the overarching recruitment model that had served Sunderland so well in the Football League, but Le Bris always felt that it was important for the club to not completely veer away from the principles that had proved so successful in previous seasons. “We still have the second youngest squad in the league, so it's a part of our identity,” he said. “We won't sign only experienced players, middle-age, 27, 28, really expensive, it’s not possible for us. “On the flip side, we have this expertise I think, the way that we can detect and develop players. Even if they have top qualities, you need to support them and create an environment to get the best out of them.” Sunderland have been doing that, with the likes of Habib Diarra, Noah Sadiki and Chemsdine Talbi having made an instant impact in the Premier League. The trio are all aged 21 or under, but significantly, they boasted a reasonable degree of top-flight experience when they moved to the Stadium of Light. Diarra was already an established Senegal international with more than 100 senior appearances for Strasbourg to his name, Sadiki was a full international with DR Congo who had made more than 100 appearances in the Belgian top-flight with Union Saint-Gilloise, and Talbi had spent three seasons in Belgium’s top division, and played in the Champions League, with Club Brugge… “That definitely helps,” said Le Bris. “They are positive, resilient, and they have good experiences behind them. They’ve probably experienced this togetherness and know that we can’t succeed alone. “You always need connections with your team-mates. You need your finishers, not just the starters, so this experience, even if it’s not written, they have this experience inside.”
We are absolutely blessed with this man at the helm, took charge of our ship, got a few crew members on board, bought a rudder then started to fill the ship with young hungry players and staff alike to man this colossus floating giant, now we’re starting to make waves once again, absolute privilege to be part of this journey, well done KLD and all involved in turning us round
A year ahead of the schedule he had in mind. With a manager that learns all the time and a great back up team. On RLB,how easy is it to like him, he tries to explain all his actions and treats the media and everyone for that matter with respect and courtesy.
