Niall Quinn has offered his opinion on Sunderland’s promotion back to the Premier League
Sunderland legend Niall Quinn has hailed Black Cats owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus for the “shrewdness” he has shown in helping to the guide the club back to the Premier League following Saturday’s play-off final victory over Sheffield United.
Regis Le Bris’ side came from a goal down at Wembley to seal a long-awaited return to the top flight in a 2-1 win at the national stadium, and will now pit their wits against the biggest clubs in the country next term.
Promotion also represents a seismic shift in fortunes for a side who were still in League One when Louis-Dreyfus purchased a controlling stake back in February 2021. And while Quinn is of the opinion that this summer and the coming campaign will represent a whole new set of challenges for the Sunderland board, he has also been suitably impressed with what he has seen from the owner so far.
What has Niall Quinn said about Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus?
Speaking on talkSPORT, Quinn said: “It’s a whole new set of problems. And I think they’re good problems to have, of course, and there’s great joy around the place, but there’s a great pressure now on behind the scenes to get this right.
“Other clubs have faced it and haven’t been able to deal with it properly. And we don’t have to look back too far – Luton, for example, look where that club is now compared to, say, where they were a couple of years ago. So it’s important that you don’t get up on this big high and then fall apart. Sunderland fell apart and went down two leagues some years ago as well. So there’s a lot of issues that you have to get right.
“But they’ve done everything very classy up to now, the Sunderland people in charge over the last two or three years. They’re really building something, I think, in the mould of say what Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford are doing. They did it with a little bit deeper thought. As you know, the Moneyball type input that those clubs have brought has probably given the likes of Sunderland good lessons to learn in terms of how you would do that and make sure that you don’t get the club into big trouble if it all falls apart. And it’s always the big point.
“In my day, the money wasn’t so big when I was chairman. But you knew when you signed a player, if it went well, other clubs would come and get them anyway. It was really difficult – I think Darren Bent being the typical example. Darren, his career was on a little bit of a low curve. We got him at a great time. He jumped back up, got back into the England squad, and as soon as he did that, there was all clubs always trying to buy him. So you’ve got your problems of getting players in, spending that money and then keeping players, moving it up bit by bit.
“But what I love about Sunderland and the new owners, if you like, they’ve been there a while now, the Louis-Dreyfus family. I think there’s a professionalism and a common sense approach. I don’t think you’ll see Sunderland signing 13, 14 players. Now, somehow that got there eventually for Nottingham Forest, but if you remember when they did that first, everybody was scratching their head saying, what have they done? So there’s a balance to be had.
“I wouldn’t offer any advice at this stage because the game has changed so much in the last, I suppose it’s nearly 20 years since I went back in as chairman. But what I expect from Sunderland is shrewdness. I think that’s the key. They’ve been very shrewd to do what they’ve done. And remember, I think Sunderland are the team with the most players to play the most minutes who came through the academy this season of any club. I think that will tell you the basis of how the new era will unfold.
“It’ll interesting to see how their net has been spreading over the last six months, because there’s no doubt they will have been doing an ‘if’ scenario… if we go up, if we don’t go up, what’s happening? Because it all comes around very quickly. I mean, there’ll be Premier League meetings next week that they’ll have to attend. They’ll get into the flow of that and all of the different things that are arising in the preparation for this wonderful time at the club. But I’d say, you know, in the build up, there’s three or four [transfer targets] there, I’m sure, that if we get there, we’ll go after them. They’ll keep it close to their chest – it’ll probably get out nearer the time.”
