REGIS Le Bris had an hour-long warts and all conversation with Aaron Connolly in his office at Sunderland's training ground, after which he was convinced that it was the right decision to sign the striker.

Le Bris had closely studied footage of Connolly in action but wanted to get to know the player before he gave the transfer the green light.

And he was struck by Connolly's honesty and desire in his first sit down chat with the striker, quickly coming to the conclusion that the 24-year-old was "ready" to take his Sunderland opportunity.

Connolly burst on to the Premier League scene as an exciting teenager at Brighton but struggled to kick on and was a free agent after a string of underwhelming spells at different clubs.

Despite his struggle in recent years, Connolly has the talent that has seen him win nine caps for the Republic of Ireland and trouble defences in the top flight. Le Bris never doubted Connolly's ability but wanted to suss out for himself whether he thought the striker had the appetite to get back on track.

"I had many many profiles during the transfer window and so I watched many games from him before," explained Sunderland's boss.

"Then, during this period when he was available, I watched other games. Technically, I knew him before but from his profile, and the others were exactly the same, we wanted to find out what exactly is his pathway and connection with this project and his willingness to become a high level player again.

"So it was the connection with our team, club and energy and I just had a one hour conversation with him and at the end it was clear that he was ready."

Le Bris didn't shy away from asking Connolly some difficult questions in their meeting but liked the honesty he got in return.

"He was very clear," he says,

"They were not bad subjects, everything was on the table. It was clear to me that he has learned from these experiences. If you want to avoid a subject...but he talked about every subject. It was interesting."

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Connolly has been through various ups and downs in his career on and off the pitch and Le Bris now believes there's a maturity to the striker.

“I think so, but we need to experience it," he said.

"We’ll see. At the minute I think that’s the case but the truth lies in his activity and our experience. We’ll see in the next weeks and months."

Asked whether this could be Connolly's last chance at a major club, Le Bris said: “I don’t know, we’ll see. The experience needs to be lived.” 

Connolly won't be involved at Watford today, with Le Bris keen for the striker to get a couple of weeks of training under his belt and expects his new recruit to be available after the international break.

Although he doesn't want to rush Connolly into action, Le Bris has been pleasantly surprised by the condition the striker is in - something else he wanted to discover for himself.

He said: "Yeah, absolutely. It was one of our key points. He looked heavy and now he’s fit, really fit."

Having struggled to live up to his potential as a teenager, Connolly - described as a dressing room leader by previous boss Liam Rosenior - will also be able to use his experiences to guide Sunderland's stars of the future.

Le Bris said: "Everyone reacts differently and now for Riggy, Jobe, we need to take care of them, to create a kind of environment where we can talk about good and bad experiences."