Ex-Sunderland defender Danny Collins thinks Regis Le Bris made an ‘interesting’ decision to do with Harrison Jones recently.
The midfielder is the latest youngster to progress from the Academy of Light to the Black Cats’ first-team squad.
Jones has only made three senior appearances in the 2024/25 season but most people would agree that he has a bright future at the club.
Collins has now explained how Le Bris did something last week that proves the Sunderland manager shares that sentiment.
Regis Le Bris has ‘confidence’ in Harrison Jones ‘ability’
Sunderland earned an important three points on Friday, 28 September as Eliezer Mayenda’s brace secured a 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
The Black Cats did not play particularly well throughout the match and the last 20 minutes, after Mayenda’s second, were nervy to say the least.
Despite that, Le Bris made the surprising decision to bring on 20-year-old Jones in injury time to see out the victory.
“That was an interesting one actually. You’ve got [Milan] Aleksic and [Salis Abdul] Samed on the bench who are certainly more experienced midfielders,” Collins said on Total Sport – North East.
“So for him to give Harrison [Jones] some more gametime ahead of them shows that he’s got confidence in his ability. I’ve seen him with the Under-18s and Under-21s and he is a tidy player.
“He’s had one or two injuries in the last couple of years but he’s been in and around the first-team squad for a long time this season. He played against Stoke in the cup so it was good for him to get some gametime in the league.”
As Collins pointed out, the move clearly proves that Le Bris thinks highly of Jones. It’s not like he entered the pitch with a 3-0 advantage – the win was very much still in jeopardy.
Harrison Jones needs League One loan move
While Jones made his Championship debut against Sheffield Wednesday last week, he isn’t playing enough first-team football to develop fully.
Harrison Jones stats 2024/25
| Appearances | Minutes | Goals | |
| Sunderland | 3 | 100 | 0 |
| Sunderland Under-21s | 11 | 927 | 2 |
Of course, there are benefits to training every day alongside the senior players and learning from Le Bris’ coaching staff, but that only goes so far.
The Black Cats are fortunate to have so much depth in the central midfield: Enzo Le Fee, Chris Rigg, Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil, Alan Browne, Salis Abdul Samed and Milan Aleksic.
This means that Jones will find it incredibly difficult to break into the starting lineup anytime soon. A loan spell in League One next season would be ideal.