Sunderland will reap long-term rewards from Short term reign

By Simon Bird

Published 13:32 15/03/10

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Ellis Short turned to Niall Quinn at the end of last season as he watched Sunderland fans celebrate avoiding relegation and had the perfect quip.

In his US drawl he joked: “Sunderland is one crazy son of a bitch club!”

Chairman Quinn reckons that was the moment that Short appreciated the passion, fervour and potential for the club he bought for just £30million.

Ten months later, Short is shaping up to be the perfect owner.

Last week, Quinn and chief executive Steve Walton unveiled financial figures that for any other club chasing the dream, would have some worrying headlines.

Losses of £26m, a wage bill soaring to £50m, a turnover of just £64m (compared to Newcastle’s Premier League income of £100m).

The football industry standard for wages to turnover is a ration of 50 per cent, but Sunderland’s stands at 78 per cent, on a par with Portsmouth.

But what is clear is that far from taking a reckless gamble at reaching the top ten, Sunderland is in fact a club on solid financial footing... simply because Short is paying the bills.

He bought Sunderland, enticed by its history and, naturally for a billionaire, the potential to build up his asset and make it worth many times more than he’s invested when, in the long run, he decides to sell up.

So far he has pumped in £77m. Not in loans that he can get back, but in pure investment. We are told he will continue to bankroll the club for the medium term.

That means Quinn, Steve Bruce and Sunderland fans will never get a better chance of finally fulfilling the club’s rich potential and breaking into the big time. Grateful doesn’t do his contribution justice.

We are also told that the sum Short has stumped up so far is a drop in the ocean from his personal wealth.

The perfect owner? You’d think that when a rich man buys into a football club he’d want some fun... like buying his fantasy player, hinting to the manager which team to pick.

Or if not that extreme, certainly by milking his generosity in public and clamouring for attention from fans.

Not so Short. He is content to have his young son as mascot now and then, slip into matches unnoticed, and only deliver lectures on his vision and drive behind the scenes.

The Sunderland players will vouch for that after a speech from the owner last week.

No replica shirt, no beer swilling in public, no standing on the terraces to be a man of the people from Short. Just serious, dignified appearances, and most of all fierce ambitious for his club.

Even when boss Bruce was on his 14 game run without a win, Short never once rang Quinn to question whether he was the right man for the job. No interference, contrary to the excuse Roy Keane gave when he quit (having spoken to Short just twice).

He simply turned to Quinn during the 4-0 win against Bolton and said: “We got the right guy here.”

So what do we know about Short? He made a fortune running Loan Star Funds dealing equities. He owns a bank in the Far East, hails from Kansas but has lived in London for years and that's where he caught the Premier League bug.

Other than that - precious little, and that’s the way he likes it. He puts in the money, backs his key football appointments like Quinn and Bruce, and hopes they can turn his investment into a winning team.

So the gamble taking place at Sunderland is all Short’s. It is not a gamble with the future of the club. It is not racking up debts.

For all the foreign owners who have taken over clubs in recent years, Short could prove to be the diamond.

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