Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been urged to sell the club if he can’t do one thing.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus became the chairman of Sunderland in February 2021, before becoming a majority stakeholder 16 months later.
Alongside Juan Sartori, the 26-year-old bought out Stewart Donald, with KLD owning 64% and his Uruguayan partner taking 36%.
KLD enjoyed an immediate impact at the club as he helped guide Sunderland back to the Championship, and also brought in the likes of Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard and Trai Hume to set fans’ tails wagging.
Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has helped change the philosophy at the club, aiming to bring in young talent and sell them for profit.
While the new ‘model’ really benefitted the club for the first couple of years, the Black Cats have begun to feel the punishment of only investing into inexperienced players this season.
Off the back of a humiliating5-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers earlier this week, Sunderland have felt the wrath of its frustrated supporters.
Steve Davison was the first figure to be sent packing after a disastrous campaign, while many fans have called for Kristjaan Speakman’s sacking too.
Sunderland owner needs to ‘admit defeat’
One man who believes Louis-Dreyfus and Sartori should be out the door is William Storey – the founder of Rich Energy and a former bidder of Sunderland.
Storey attempted to purchase the club back in 2020, before reportedly returning with a consortium prepared to pay Louis-Dreyfus £42m two years later.
The British businessman has since tried to buy Reading and Coventry City but has failed, with his claims regularly being called out by fans and the media.
He has often taken to X to share his feelings on Sunderland, and he was quick to criticise their owners yesterday.
He wrote: “In Africa on business but saw the Sunderland result. Ironic that at Blackburn the Venky’s are considered very poor owners who don’t understand football. The board of Sunderland need to get their act together & invest or admit defeat and sell immediately. Embarrassing.”
Is William Storey talking rubbish?
William Storey should be ignored at all costs, but there are many fans that will agree that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus should sell the club – but I definitely don’t.
The Swiss-French owner may not be the richest in the world, but he has – for the most part – proven that we can do what we are doing without bags of cash.
If Sunderland had won the play-offs last season there would be very few complaints as we would have achieved back-to-back promotions with a very young squad, but we arguably failed due to a stacked list of injuries.
This season’s failings have been down to Kristjaan Speakman, and if he had brought in a capable replacement for Tony Mowbray in December then we could have once again been challenging for a place in the top flight.
Louis-Dreyfus may have made his mistakes, but I don’t think he is a bad owner and I certainly don’t think we would be better off without him.
If he can see the light and get rid of Speakman, then we may be heading in the right direction. Though it would certainly be nice if Sartori decided to pull his finger out and show his worth to the club too.