Enzo Le Fee insists his relationship with Regis Le Bris remains as close as ever despite his absence from the starting line-up for Sunderland’s Premier League return against West Ham.
Le Fee was one of the Black Cats’ star performers in the second half of last season after signing from Roma, and given his closeness to Le Bris, who he also worked under at Lorient, it was anticipated the 25-year-old would be a certainty to start Sunderland’s first game back in the top-flight.
Instead, after a summer of intense transfer activity, Le Fee found himself on the bench as the new season began on Saturday and had to wait for 76 minutes before he was eventually introduced as a substitute for Simon Adingra.
There were suggestions in the build-up to Saturday’s game that the French midfielder was frustrated at his demotion down the pecking order, but Le Bris talked up his importance in his pre-match press conference last week and Le Fee is adamant he accepts his head coach’s decision.
“I think everyone wants to play [as a] starter, of course,” he said. “But sometimes it’s like this. Hopefully, he [Le Bris] trusts me for the season. If it wasn’t the case, I would be the first to be surprised.
“I know him, so I have to do the job for him and for the club as well. I think, last year, we did a really good job, but now we have to stay in this league, so everybody is in the same boat. We work together to be good.”
Le Fee made a positive impact after coming onto the field at the weekend, with his positive passing ensuring Sunderland remained on the front foot despite already boasting a two-goal advantage.
Another of Sunderland’s replacements, Wilson Isidor, scored after coming on as a substitute, underlining the importance of squad depth and being ready to make an impact off the bench.
“Even if I had two minutes, I was ready to help the team,” said Le Fee. “Everybody has to have this mindset because it’s never the first XI that will finish the season. We work for this, everyone. When the coach calls us to go in, we have to do the job to help the team to score. We did that for Wilson and I think this is a good example.”
Nordi Mukiele became Sunderland’s 12th summer signing when he joined from Paris St Germain on Sunday, but despite so much change and upheaval, it appears as though the spirit and togetherness that helped propel the club back to the Premier League last season remains intact.
“I think the biggest strength of the team is to be together,” said Le Fee. “For me, it’s a really good start for everyone because we scored three goals and the substitutions don’t change the game in a bad way. We tried to keep the team in a good way and we scored a third, so that’s a good example.
“Hopefully, it will be the same case every game. Yes, sometimes we have bad games, but that’s football. We can’t say we’ll have only good games. Everybody knows that football is like this, so we have to be together.”
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