Here are three positives that have come from Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ rein at Sunderland.
It has been just over three years since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus became the EFL’s youngest chairman at just 23 years old.
The Swiss-French businessman took over a controlling stake of the club from previous owner Stewart Donald, to which supporters were extremely excited as they looked to put his horrific tenure behind them.
You just need to watch the second series of Sunderland Til’ I Die to get a glimpse of how bad Donald was at Sunderland, so KLD’s arrival was honestly like a breath of fresh air.
However, three years later and there has been plenty of criticism for the owner.
Everything started so promisingly, but this season has seen Michael Beale appointed then sacked two months later, the club forced to apologise for allowing Newcastle United decorations in the Stadium of Light and every bit of experience and leadership forced out of the team. As a result, KLD has rightfully been questioned.
However, we can’t ignore the positives the owner has done and how much he has transformed it from the absolute state Donald and Charlie Methven left it in.
Here are three positive things Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has done since joining Sunderland…
Rebuilding the academy
One major criticism of Stewart Donald was that he stripped our academy of all our assets for very little money.
The Black Cats failed to keep hold of Josh Maja and sold him for around £1.3 million, while they offloaded the likes of Bali Mumba, Sam Greenwood and Joe Hugill.
KLD has done a good job at building the academy back up again and has managed to get the club’s promising youngsters to commit to staying here, rather than moving them on as soon as a bigger club comes in for them.
Chris Rigg signing a scholarship deal with Sunderland last year was one decision that KLD can certainly take credit for.
Stadium investment
The Stadium of Light already had a mini revamp since Louis-Dreyfus’ arrival, having already upgraded the Quinn’s Sports Bar, Montgomery Suite and the Business Lounge.
It has now been confirmed that further works will be done, bringing in safe standing, a new PA and floodlighting system and a brand-new state-of-the-art playing surface and undersoil heating system.
KLD is clearly eager to improve the atmosphere on Wearside and improve fans’ experiences on a match day. The closest we got to that under Donald was when he asked fans to replace the seats so he didn’t have to splash any cash.
Squad value increase
What the new regime promised to do was bring in young, promising players on the cheap and develop them into Premier League players – thus bringing in more money.
There is no denying that we have executed that brilliantly, with Jack Clarke likely to leave for over £20 million in the summer.
We also brought in the likes of Aji Alese, Dan Ballard and Trai Hume for minimal fees, and could potentially make millions of all of them – if we wanted to.
While we don’t seem to have really thought about the next step to this process, or the fact that we still need experienced players alongside these youngsters, it has mostly been a huge benefit to the club.