Kyril Louis-Dreyfus says Sunderland have improved 'exponentially' during his time in charge - but admits the club is still 'very, very far off' where he feels it should be. Swiss billionaire heir Louis-Dreyfus is approaching the two-year anniversary of the day he bought into the club and took over as chairman in February 2021, before going on to take a majority shareholding this summer.
Under his direction, the club has adopted a sporting director/head coach structure and the Black Cats went on to win promotion from League One back to the Championship in his first full season in charge, ending their four-year stay in the third tier. And Sunderland have gone on to make an impressive return to the Championship, sitting in midtable as the season reaches its halfway point this weekend.
Louis-Dreyfus is pleased with the progress the club has made under his reign but says they still have some way to go as they look to put in place the fundamentals that will underpin a sustained bid to win back the place in the Premier League that Sunderland lost back in 2017. "We've seen that no matter how much you spend it is never easy to bring in ten or 12 new players, find the right blend, and immediately start winning," said Louis-Dreyfus, speaking before last night's defeat against West Bromwich Albion in what was his first interview with local media since he arrived on Wearside.
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"So the fact that we got out of the division in my first [full] year and are competing now in our first year back in the Championship is very satisfying, but at the same time we will try to keep the same rate of improvement which has been exponential since I came in. We are always trying to get better and better.
"We are still very, very far off where I think we should be. We are still at a very early stage, in my opinion. There are so many areas where we are learning. There are 1,000 mistakes we've made since coming in, and I think it is very important to reflect on what you do and not think you have done everything [right].
"When we came in, because we started off in a very difficult situation, I said to the people in the building that we needed to get better week by week. It's still the same kind of thing. I don't ever want us to go in the wrong direction.
"So far, I think people will agree that we have had linear improvement and I want to see that keep going and not see us starting to stagnate or go the other way. It's not easy, but that is the main point now."
Sunderland earned promotion last season via the play-offs and Louis-Dreyfus is conscious that for many clubs arriving in the Championship through that route, the transition can be difficult. But the Black Cats have so far handled the step up, although the league table is such that while they are only four points outside the play-off places, they are also only six points above the relegation zone.
Clearly, Louis-Dreyfus would like to see Sunderland win promotion to the Premier League as quickly as possible but he is also aware that the club is still building the solid foundations needed to stay at the top level. He said: "We are now approaching halfway, so it is a good time to reflect on how the season has gone.
"First and foremost, as a team that was promoted through the play-offs, statistically there is a very, very high chance of getting relegated again - I think something like 90 percent of the teams who get promoted through the play-offs from League One go straight back down. So ultimately the fact that we are competing towards the top end of the division is a very, very pleasing aspect which no-one really took for granted at the beginning of the season because we came into the division with 99 percent of our players having never played at this level.
"We've got more certainty than we had six months ago because we've seen everyone play in this division and how they are like. The division is competitive but every team has a chance, as we have seen every week - everyone can beat everyone.
"I think we have a good chance to try and be competitive this year. But the division is very tight, we all know that, and we know what a run of form - good or bad - can do to your position in the league.
"To me, it's more about wanting to see that continuing improvement more than anything else. We don't want to get promoted just by [harnessing] momentum, we want solid foundations that will ultimately get us up for a reason.
"We'd all love to finish in the top two this year and it's not unimaginable we can finish in one of those places, but at the same time it is about having a club where momentum or no momentum, you are working at a level where you should be competing. We've got good people in positions now, though, where we can look and say 'six months ago we would not have handled that situation that way and this time we have'.
"That's good, because that is the only way you are going to get promoted. We are catching up with the others [teams in the Championship], and then it is about surpassing others.
"I don't want to disrespect Championship clubs that have been here for a while because we are not going to surpass them overnight - if you could, it would be easy!"
Louis-Dreyfus was speaking at the launch of The Sunderland Story, a new play charting the history of the club and the city, which will come to the Empire Theatre in May. The play will follow the Carter family, keen Sunderland fans who reminisce about tales of days gone by, family and friends, shipbuilding, mines, the newly-emerging city of Sunderland and the bonds and memories that football creates.
The writer, Nicky Allt, is behind similar productions telling the footballing history of Liverpool and Celtic. The play has the full backing of the club, with chief operating officer Steve Davison, head coach Tony Mowbray, 1973 FA Cup-winning hero Jimmy Montgomery, legendary captain Kevin Ball, and official historian Rob Mason, also on hand at the launch.
The play will run from May 17-27, 2023, and tickets go on sale from the Empire box office tomorrow at 12noon, starting at £13.
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