BOURNEMOUTH visit the Stadium of Light today, with Regis Le Bris citing the south-coast side as an ideal model for Sunderland to follow as they look to successfully reestablish themselves in the Premier League.
And while there has been a great deal of focus on the players Sunderland were able to sign this summer, the Black Cats boss claims the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford highlight the importance of knowing when to sell in order to keep on progressing.
While Bournemouth are historically a much smaller club than Sunderland, playing in front of an average crowd of just over 11,000 at the Vitality Stadium, they have developed into an established top-flight force since winning promotion from the Championship in 2022.
They avoided relegation in 15th position in the first season in the Premier League, and subsequently finished in 12th and ninth. They sit in eighth position ahead of today’s trip to Wearside, with a number of pundits tipping them as serious contenders for European qualification this term.
“It’s a good model for us, the way they built over the last four seasons in the Premier League,” said Le Bris. “I think it’s really interesting for us because we like this energy, this pressing team and the ambition they have in every game.
“They are really well-organised, they are consistent in their structure and they are doing well. There are lots of different points that they are doing really well in, and that is why they are a good example for us.
“I think every club has its own journey, but the recruitment at Bournemouth, and the way they have built their club, with a very specific style of play, is very similar to what we want to do here. It fits with the region, with the club and with the history of Sunderland as well.
“It is always interesting to analyse and assess what happened at other clubs when it worked, and what happened when it didn’t work. Here, we have a good example of something that has worked very well.”
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Bournemouth have rightly been praised for their successful recruitment in recent years, with the likes of Marcus Tavernier, Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo having been recruited for relatively low fees and developed within the Cherries’ first-team squad.
With their income restricted by the size of their stadium, they have had to be canny operators in order to remain within the financial parameters laid out by the Premier League’s PSR regulations, meaning they have had to regularly sell their biggest names in order to be able to reinvest.
This summer, they sold Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid for £50m, Milos Kerkez to Liverpool for £40m, Illia Zabarnyi to Paris St Germain for £57m and Dango Ouattara to Brentford for £57m, having sold Dominic Solanke to Tottenham for £55m 12 months earlier.
Sunderland’s heavy spending this summer means they will have to be mindful of the Premier League’s new financial rules in the next few years, which will almost certainly mean having to sell players as well as buy them.
“Player trading has to be part of the model,” said Le Bris. “I think it works like that – if you want to invest, you need money. It is a cycle, and it is important to feel the right timing.
“You have to know when it is the right time to sell a certain player, and then know you have someone ready to replace him. It has to be the right timing for the player as well. It is a question of getting the right balance that works for everyone.”
Sunderland have sold effectively in the last few years, with Ross Stewart, Jack Clarke, Jobe Bellingham and Tommy Watson all being moved on for hefty fees, so while Le Bris does not want to create the impression of the Black Cats being a ‘stepping stone club’, he is not afraid to spell out the possibility of lucrative future moves when meeting prospective signings.
“We want to give our players the best opportunity possible,” he said. “That is part of the process, and something we talk about when we sign a player, at the beginning of the discussions.
“We don’t want to say that Sunderland is just a step in a career, but it is part of a journey. Here, you can grow. You can be exposed to lots of things. You will play against the best teams in Europe, so being in the Premier League is more or less like being in the Champions League.
“You will be exposed to that and have the conditions and the environment to grow. You will be supported and challenged. When you are young, those conditions are perfect. Then we will see what the future holds. Maybe the club will improve with you, so it will fit your ambitions. We don’t know.”
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