Everything you need to know about the Ligue 1 manager linked with the vacant Brighton Head Coach role

The current Lens manager was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan, Seine-Maritime on April 15, 1971 and began his playing career in the fourth tier of French football – with FC Rouen on the north coast in 1988.

Haise, playing as a midfielder, went on to have a 16-year playing career in the lower leagues of the French footballing pyramid. He made 343 appearances for Laval, Beauvais and Angers before retiring in 2004.

Haise first major coaching role came in 2012, when he took over National 3 side US Changé, before being offered the opportunity to manage FC Lorient Reserves in a division above.

Whilst managing in Brittany region, his side won the National 2 Group D league title in 2015, leading to Haise being named first-team assistant manager under Sylvain Ripoll in the French top flight for the 2016/2017.

Following a poor start to the season, in which Lorient lost five of their first seven games, Ripoli was sacked and Haise put in temporary charge.

As caretaker manager, Haise could not turn Lorient’s fortunes around, failing to win a single game out of the five he was in charge for (4 losses, 1 draw) – the club would eventually be relegated at the end of that season.

After Bernard Casoni was appointed Lorient manager in November, Haise left the club and became Lens Reserve team manager in 2017.

In the 2019-2020 season, former Nottingham Forest manager Philippe Montanier was sacked as Lens first team manager with the club in third place in the French second division.

Haise was promoted to manager and won his first two games in charge, before the Covid-19 pandemic ended the French football season in March with Lens in second place, meaning the club were promoted to Ligue 1 for the first time in four years.

Haise was offered the job on a full-time basis and lead the team to an impressive 7th place finish last season, being one of the few teams to avoid defeat against champions Paris St Germain in both league games, and narrowly missing out on a European place.

So far this season, Lens have been the stand-out story of French football. Haise’s side are unbeaten after seven league games – five wins and two draws – sitting in third place, two points behind PSG and Marseille.

Since becoming manager, Haise has generally set up Lens in a 3-4-1-2 formation, although he has at times used a 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 system.

Haise said on formations: "I don’t have a favourite system. For some time now, we have often played 3-4-1-2 or 3-5-2 with the midfielder moving. This is the one I use because it more closely matches the squad and the players.”

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The Lens manager is currently favourite to be the next Albion manager, alongside Norwegian Kjetil Knutsen and the former Shakhtar Donetsk manager Roberto De Zerbi.

Brighton are believed to be stepping up their efforts to recruit Graham Potter’s replacement as head coach in the coming days, following the 47-year-old’s departure to Chelsea.