Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been speaking on the latest edition of The Price of Football podcast about financial news from the world of football.
One of the topics he spent some time on was Sunderland and Stewart Donald, who sold the club to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus earlier this year after he initially bought Sunderland in May 2018.
Things went sour for Donald at the Stadium of Light after the club failed to secure promotion from League One in the 2018/19 season and then it emerged that Donald had taken £20m out of the club to buy the Black Cats.
Therefore, Maguire spent some time talking about where it all went wrong for Donald.
He said: (21:56) “In the 2019 accounts, there was a strange bit of disclosure, where it appeared as if this company Madrox owed Sunderland £20m, and Sunderland said ‘don’t worry about that lads we’ll write it off’.
“So that’s what I think piqued the ire of many Sunderland fans, along with the fact that Stewart Donald became a bit of a laughingstock and therefore, you felt by association as a Sunderland fan, this wasn’t reflecting well on the club.
“They don’t like to be made to look foolish, and I think that Stewart Donald has made them look foolish.
“I think when he bought the club, his intentions were probably good. Although I suspect his intentions were to try to make some money out of the club from running it for a couple of years and selling it on [for] profit.”
Was Donald a good owner for Sunderland?
No, he was dreadful
Yes, he did his best
TIF Thoughts on Donald…
By the end of his time in charge of the Stadium of Light, Donald was an unpopular man on Wearside.
However, his departure has led to the arrival of billionaire Louis-Dreyfus, who clearly has ambitions for the club, and we think that Sunderland deserve to be back at the top of English football.
They have spent too long in League One, and though Donald failed, we hope that Louis-Dreyfus doesn’t.
In other news: Journalist drops claim on Jordan Jones’ future amid Sunderland loan spell