Suddenly, the conversations around Sunderland feel very different.

One recruitment executive at an established Premier League club details a chat with an agent about a highly regarded international player who has “a lot of options”. They reeled off a clutch of clubs who are regulars in European competition before letting slip that Sunderland were the Premier League side whose project seemed to interest the player the most.

It was a revealing little titbit. The Black Cats aren’t just riding high in the Premier League table, they’re also at the table for top players again.

A big part of that is down to the alchemy of Regis Le Bris and an artfully constructed squad that has been overhauled in the last six months by one of the smartest recruitment teams in the game. It is a measure of the

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