Football has always been a cyclical thing; a club rises and enjoys success before enduring a spell of the doldrums relative to their position. Compare Liverpool in the 80’s to Liverpool in the 90’s or Manchester United of today compared to Fergie’s team at their peak. The quality rises again and so now we see Liverpool competing in European finals once again.
Our League One Play off against Charlton left us bereft. Suckered into yet another season in hell in the cruellest of fashions. The pain and the dirt of the division were washed away in the most glorious of circumstances less than two weeks ago and our voices are finally starting to recover. Over the weekend we saw Nottingham Forest return to the top flight after twenty-two years outside of it; twice European Champions and finally after nearly a quarter of a century they are back on the big stage; the trend in football is for recovery at the moment.
If I have to wait twenty-two years to see Sunderland back in the top flight though I will be an awful lot greyer and an awful lot less mobile. The cycle has begun to move into the next phase though, from the depths of despair, from acceptance and a grim long term view Alex Neil has given us hope. The tunnel has a bright light on the other side and the supporters seem galvanised. We were accused of arrogance in League One as though it were a thing of shame. In a previous upward turn Roy Keane insisted we should have pictures in the tunnel of past glories, to show teams how big we were when they were waiting to come on to the pitch. We should own our history. In those days arrogance was a good thing. It felt at Wembley as we dwarfed the Wycombe support that we understood that again.
There is a fine line between arrogance and pride and pride often comes before the fall. In League One we have seen teams yo-yo between the divisions; ill-equipped to deal with the gulf in both finances and capability between League One and the Championship. If this is to be part of the upwards cycle then it is clear that significant investment will be required. The playing squad is the main concern of course, but we also need to lose the unprofessional image that has been allowed to permeate the bones of Sunderland AFC during their time in League One.
Staffing cut to the bone, the stadium itself in disrepair, the fanzone closed indefinitely. If we are to regain our swagger then all of these things need to form part of the bigger picture and reversing the Oxfordshire rot is a key priority. When news started to filter through that a deal had been agreed in principle for the sale of Charlie Methven and Stewart Donald’s shares it felt almost as much of a relief as the final whistle at Wembley. The danger is, of course, in putting your faith in false prophets. As the Eastleigh entrepreneurs rolled into town giving us our club back the groundswell of thanks was almost deafening. “You want us to fix the seats for you? Thank you for the opportunity.” The breakdown in relationships between fan base and board was equally rapid and perhaps even more vocal.
Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven are perfectly entitled to buy shares in a business with the aim of speculation. That is to say if they were to raise us back to the Championship and make a profit in their investment, why not? That makes perfect business sense and is entirely normal in a capitalist environment. If you feel like a bit of a mug for buying into all of that fanfare around “custodians of the club” and drinks in the Colliery Tavern please don’t.
With all deals like this there is an element of PR to allow the project to embed. When Kyril Louis-Dreyfuss came in it felt like finally we were moving in the right direction. Despite his age, here was a man who cared about football and had a purse to match ambitions. His father’s background at Marseilles had given Kyril an education in how to run a passionate fan base and raise them from the ashes; it seemed a neat fit. Yes, the old mob were still involved but if they were just going to sit in the background and claim profits on sales when we had a modicum of success then it wasn’t a problem. At least, it wasn’t a problem until we found out what the shareholdings were.
I’m no accountant but I do understand a little about accounts. Money is introduced into a company through either debt or equity. From a football longevity perspective, debt is bad and equity is good. See Ellis Short. I haven’t delved into the accounts and so cannot give you a run through of how finances have been managed in terms of money introduced into the club, but, if Kyril was to introduce cash into the club via equity then for the other shareholders within the club I would expect there would be a requirement to match the cash introduced or alternatively accept that your holding in the club has been watered down. Like I say, I’m not an accountant, and there are probably lots of accountants out there who will tell me that is a simplistic view; however, if something is worth ten pounds and I own 25% of it and then somebody else makes that something worth £20 out of their own money then it makes sense that I wouldn’t be able to claim I owned 25% of £20.
If I were able to claim that, then where would the incentive be for the other person to make it worth £20? To bring that context back to Sunderland, why would Kyril pour money into the club out of his own pocket for the benefit of the other shareholders if they were not chipping in? Before anyone assumes that the other shareholders were not chipping in, I will add that I am not at all aware of the extent to which Methven and Donald have matched investment from Kyril, they may well have done, but to push this club on to the next level (and looking at the disrepair around the stadium and the staff cuts) there needs to be significant investment. While I am sure that Messrs Donald and Methven are comfortable, I suspect their personal fortune is an ant compared to Kyril’s ant hill. That all being the case, how can we push on to the next level unless Donald and Methven leave?
There is an additional word of caution in all of this, that bit about false prophets. As it currently stands we have no idea who the potential investors are. We are hearing that exclusivity is imminent, effectively meaning that no last-minute bid can come in now everyone realises Sunderland are a massive club. In the past at Sunderland we have seen various owners take on the horns of this beast in an attempt to guide us back to the 50’s Bank of England status (itself ruined by financial mismanagement) and, for the most part every attempt has eventually landed us back at the bottom of that inevitable cycle. There are also questions around ethics following other takeovers and the type of people involved in them. There will be scrutiny over any potential takeover, but the first step in rebuilding this glorious club is to shake off the ugly side of League One and start behaving professionally and with ambition.
While Methven and Donald remain at the club the evidence suggests that is not possible. If the shares are purchased then it will be right to question the value, motives and ethics of any new owners; if we didn’t then we have learned nothing, but this could be news that is as equally welcome as a Ross Stewart Wembley goal. The other concern is why Kyril himself has decided not to take up the opportunity. There may be a plethora of reasons and this may be part of the long term plan. It may well be that whoever is investing was always in the sidelines egging Kyril on, telling him they would enter from stage left once he had proven this was possible. The alternative is that perhaps Kyril has seen an opportunity himself to capitalise on the growth in value of Sunderland. This is the problem with us supporters, it’s our club and if we don’t have complete transparency from the people looking after our precious asset then questions do creep in. Keep asking the questions, this club is precious and it is yours.
As always FTM
