Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ Vision for Sunderland
Written by Joshua Bell on 12th December 2022
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has confirmed that Sunderland is preparing to “invest and develop” the team both on and off the pitch over the next few months.
With the winter transfer window growing closer, there has been great intrigue into how much Louis-Dreyfus would invest to help the club reach the supporters’ lofty expectations. Last month, he made a rare public appearance at a Q&A held by the Red and White Army fan group at Pop Recs.
When discussing this topic, he stated: “We wanted to build the value of the squad from when I arrived and it is higher now than it was six months ago. We’re still in that phase where we have to invest and develop the squad before we get to the point where we just reinvest the funds we are generating.”
Alongside him at the press conference was Chief Operating Officer Steve Davison, Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman and Non-Executive Director and Sky Sports News Presenter David Jones.
As well as investment in the team, another huge talking point over recent weeks following incidents of away fans throwing objects down towards the home fans has been the position of the away fans.
Davison announced that Sunderland will consider moving away fans into the lower bowl of the Stadium of Light in the long term. He believes this will ease the safety issues and provide a better atmosphere inside the stadium. This is also a requirement for all stadiums in the Premier League.
Then the panel answered the question many fans have been desperate to hear: What is Juan Sartori’s actual role in the football club? Sartori has been at the club for almost two years now, but little has been revealed about his role other than a few appearances at games.
Louis-Dreyfus confirmed that Sartori is not involved in running the club, but he helps with recruitment and support for his plans. Red and White Army believe: “This hints that Sartori’s role at Monaco has helped in scouting/signing players from the French League such as Edouard Michut and Abdoullah Ba.”
After the conference concluded, a spoke person for Red and White Army said: “This has been a great chance to understand the direction the club is going and for the people running the club to provide transparency to the fans.”
