Sunderland’s trajectory has been upwards, though not without interruptions, dips and controversies. Johnson could not force the team past Lincoln City in a League One play-off semi-final in Covid-affected 2021; his team then lost 6-0 at Bolton Wanderers in February 2022. Alex Neil came in and took Sunderland up via a play-off win at Wembley against Wycombe Wanderers in May 2022, but walked out to Stoke City three months later. Tony Mowbray and Michael Beale followed Neil, with Mike Dodds a four-month caretaker last season.
Regis Le Bris became the fifth manager of the new ownership
last summer. All the while, the club
focused on reducing its age profile, buying young and, particularly under
Mowbray, developing a playing style that had neutrals’ heads turning. The
eight-man move finished by Jack Clarke at Reading in September 2022 epitomised
this.
February 2021: on a Tuesday night at Shrewsbury Town,
Sunderland lost 2-1 to fall to seventh in their third season in League One. It
was another dire result, a fortnight after drawing at home against Gillingham.
Shrewsbury, however, is memorable as it brought a first
public sighting of Louis-Dreyfus, sitting in the stands, two months after the
young French-Swiss had signalled a takeover.
Jim Rodwell was Sunderland’s chief executive at the time of
the takeover and was part of the negotiations. Now at Charlton Athletic, who
are at Wembley in the League One play-off on Sunday, Rodwell told The
Athletic: “This was never going to be about a rich family throwing money at
a football club. It was always going to be about building something carefully,
growing it organically and trying to be better. That was always Kyril’s MO.
Largely, the fan base has been patient. There is an
awareness on Wearside and at comparable clubs — Sheffield United, for instance
— that in modern, economically-distorted football, achievement may not be
measured in trophies but in impact locally and in delivering an identity and,
if possible, excitement: the Reading goal, the Ballard header etc.
But an off-field strategy, one which prioritises player
trading and forms part of a wider plan “to be run sustainably”, in the words of
chief business officer David Bruce (formerly of MLS), has divided opinion. To
some, sustainability is a byword for frugality.
For others, the approach is long overdue.
Sunderland spent 10 years in the Premier League and still
wound up in grim financial straits. Donald’s arrival in 2018 was laden with
promises and it transpired he and his consortium — of which shareholder Juan
Sartori was part — had leveraged Sunderland’s second-year parachute payment to
buy the club. They then wrote off their obligation to repay £20.5million taken from
their coffers.
Louis-Dreyfus stemmed concerns and, though still losing
money, Sunderland’s finances are improved. Infrastructure has seen investment
after years of neglect. Wages are middling for the Championship. Gate receipts,
buoyed by 40,000 crowds, outstrip some Premier League clubs. Debt, once the
club’s scourge, is low and mostly owed to the owners, interest-free. Sustainability is close to impossible in the
Championship but Sunderland fare better than most: 16 clubs in the division lost
more money than them last season.
Four years ago, as Louis-Dreyfus took his seat at
Shrewsbury, disconnection was Sunderland’s dominant theme. And, of course,
Wembley could bring disappointment and, from there, questions.
As a Charlton fan, I took no particular pleasure in beating
an authentic club like Sunderland in two pla- off finals and I wish them well
today.
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