Can Sunderland show how to win promotion with young players?

‘You can’t win anything with kids is one of the most infamous statements in English football: https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/you-cant-win-anything-with-kids-alan-hansen-infamous-man-utd-rant-aftermath/1gn0os7ix8fp418q3pequhf9j0

Can Sunderland show that relying on youth is the way to secure promotion? It is interesting that a booster article came out in the Financial Times on the day that they sacked unpopular coach Michael Beale after 12 games: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68340952

Sunderland are now 10th in the Championship after recent defeats by Huddersfield and Birmingham.

At 26, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is the youngest person ever to own an English football club. So it seems fitting that this scion of the agricultural trading dynasty is betting on youth to bring Sunderland back to the promised land of the Premier League.

“My family’s been around sports for a very long time,” he told the Financial Times. His late father Robert once owned French team Olympique de Marseille. “Football isn’t new to me,” he added, “it isn’t something where my passion came overnight.”

He took control of Sunderland in 2021, aged just 23, and now owns a 64 per cent stake. The remaining shares are held by Juan Sartori, a Uruguayan senator, who is also a private equity executive, and the son-in-law of Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch who controls French club Monaco.

Championship football, notes the Pink ‘Un, can be a treacherous place for ambitious clubs. Some, such as Derby County, have thrown money at the chase for promotion to the Premier League, only to fall short, leaving themselves financially stretched. Average wage bills in the Championship exceed revenues generated by clubs, according to figures from Deloitte.

Under Louis-Dreyfus, Sunderland is attempting to chart an alternative course, relying on young, unknown, imported players to win matches. Many clubs in the league value Championship experience above all else, said Louis-Dreyfus, but that can mean signing expensive players who are “on the way down”. Instead, Sunderland hunts for overseas players, typically aged between 19 and 21. (Although I seem to remember Mason Burstow at Charlton).

“What we’re trying to do on the football side is invest in young talent and give them the opportunity and the belief,” he said. As a result, Sunderland has the youngest squad in the league this year, with an average age of 22.6, according to figures from Transfermarkt, down from more than 29 when Louis-Dreyfus bought the club.

That compares with 25.6 at league leaders Leicester City and 27.3 for West Bromwich Albion, the team with the highest average age. Louis-Dreyfus, whose twin brother Maurice also sits on Sunderland’s board, is betting on this strategy to overcome the “biggest discrepancy between potential and actual” in football, based on the club’s large and loyal fan base, modern stadium, big online following and past success on the pitch.

Promotion to the Premier League is “an absolute necessity”, he added. “This period we’re going through now is the longest Sunderland has ever been outside the Premier League. So this is not something that anyone is used to,” he said. “We think our strategy is going to get us there.”

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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