Is it time for him to move on? He’s in his mid-twenties and has shown potential since he arrived, helping us get out of League One and, hopefully, stabilise in the Championship. But there’s are signs that, since January, he and his advisors haven’t been fully committed to the club and are being distracted by other interests.
So, is it time for KLD to move on?
Some of our fans will immediately say yes. Get him out of the club, he’s no money, he doesn’t love the club…
Let’s start with that second point, of course he isn’t in it for the love of the club. Why would he be? He’s Swiss/French who grew up around Marseilles football club. Why would he love Sunderland? Do you believe the owners of City, Liverpool, Arsenal have a deep love for those clubs? Did Al Mubarak dream of saving City from League One as he wandered the back streets of Moss Side?
Today’s club owners are highly unlikely to be locals made good. It’d be lovely if they were. We’d love to scream that they were one of our own. But it’s rare, so let’s put love to one side and focus on competence and a desire and commitment to succeed.
As for the owners’ access to funds, the accounts, along with large amounts of evidence globally, show that there’s no truth in the suggestion they have no money. Whether they’re prepared to risk it is a different matter.
This season we have seen a lack of attention to detail in far too many places. The NUFC Black Cat Bar fiasco was humiliating. Managerial appointments, strategic decisions on recruitment, a make do and mend mentality, the machinery that allows us to buy tickets or shirts… too many mistakes. But who made them and why?
The board is made up of two groups of people, people whose careers and livelihoods depend on the happiness of the Louis-Dreyfus family plus David Jones, Leo Pearlman and, logically, soon to replace Steve Davison, David Bruce. I’m sure all three of these people are perfectly lovely. But what do they bring to the board (ignoring the fact that they can have no sway over the other six in team KLD)?
None have experience of the day to day running of a business, none have operational experience, David Jones has, of course, watched a huge amount of football and will know a lot of people in the game. But his professional career is in a company who are more about the show than the content. Pearlman is an unquestioned expert… in putting on a show. And what do we know about Bruce? Another fan, another career with no management experience but lots of making a show out of average footballers in the home of razzamatazz.
Pearlman came out straight after the final game of the season with a tub-thumping call to action. But with no action suggested.
Just after Bruce’s arrival, the club announced millions to be spent revolutionising the ground. Which is great. The press release says that the ‘improvements will enhance matchday now and in the future’ and will bring ‘lasting developments to our loyal supporters’. Closer analysis shows this is a development of the 5G network, a new PA system and improvements to the lighting system. This came just after many noticed that the stadium was effectively running off generators. So, let’s bring some honesty to this and take out the razzle dazzle, the board authorised expenditure that will keep the stadium open and usable… and you’ll be able to send your ‘why don’t we have a striker’ text a little bit quicker.
The board are good at distraction. They have allowed the media, the fans and chat rooms to attach all the blame for, well, everything on the pitch, to Speakman (who it is worth remembering is not on the board) and everything off the pitch to Davison. They may well be entirely to blame, we can’t be sure as fans, but what resources were they offered? What restrictions? What are they being told by the board about expectations?
This year the club has felt disorganised and leaderless. KLD has been less visible, particularly in the latter stages of the season, but we can partly excuse that with the birth of his first child. He also acquired the World Motorbike Supercross business this year with Juan Sartori. Is that taking up their time? Actually, as the new company’s address is Black Cat House and there is no obvious infrastructure for the business elsewhere perhaps the real question is, is it taking up the time of people who should be running our football club?
It will be interesting to see what Davison’s departure does to the off-field mood. But equally, it raises the questions as to who will be in charge of detail day to day? Who will lead on strategy? Who will challenge KLD and his team of consiglieri? Or will it all be an MLS/Sky Sports show produced by Fulwell 73, cheerleaders with pompoms in Hummel’s best kit but still no striker? A new all singing all dancing shop but no players fit to wear the shirts we buy. A ticket office guaranteeing speedy access to games we don’t want to see.
My gut feeling is that it’s KLD’s way or the highway. But where will KLD’s way take us? And what does he want out of it? If it’s to achieve the greatness in business and football his father achieved, he needs to step up, be hands on and accept the advice of experts in operations, finance, facilities, football and staff management. He needs to accept that running a business is far more important than owning one and, if he can’t do that (or isn’t prepared to), he should accept that his investment will start to go backwards and the club’s value has peaked for him. And everyone knows you should sell when an asset’s value has peaked. So KLD, it’s up to you. You either need to step up and manage the business you’ve bought or step aside and let someone else do it.
