Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus explains why he is 'really pleased' with Tony Mowbray

It appears that, for once, the owner and manager are on the same page at Sunderland.

Author:
Lynsey Thompson
Publish date:
Dec 13, 2022 12:23 PM EST

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus says he is ‘really pleased’ with the performance of Tony Mowbray since he was appointed Sunderland head coach.

Mowbray arrived at the end of August after Alex Neil walked out to join Stoke City.

It has not always been easy for Mowbray, who has had to deal with an injury crisis that left him without any fit strikers at the club.

However, he has managed to keep Sunderland competitive in the Championship, and it’s something that Sunderland owner Louis-Dreyfus has appreciated.

“What I liked here is that Tony came in with an open mentality - we knew we had injuries but we didn’t give up,” he said at the launch of The Sunderland Story.

“We tried to be creative to pick up results in a lot of the games and that was really pleasing.

“To come into a club and a new group without a pre-season is not easy and it wasn’t an easy situation but so far it’s gone really well and we’re really pleased with it.”

Sunderland have seen their fair share of conflicts between ownership and managers over the years, with the likes of Gus Poyet and Sam Allardyce complaining about a lack of support in the Ellis Short days and Neil clearly unhappy with the current ownership during the summer.

For once, though, there appears to be perfect harmony between owners and coach.

"I am on board with the ownership," Mowbray recently said.

"I like my conversations with the owners and with Kristjaan. I'm not stamping my feet, I'm not sitting here getting frustrated and angry because we should be getting promotion.

"I understand that it is probably best for a club that has just come out of League One to grow the team so that when we do get to the Premier League, it's not a case of changing 15 players because they aren't good enough, it's about adding two or three who are real high quality with experience who can help the team get through what would be a difficult season."

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