Ten Years of Sullivan and Gold

There's a two-page interview with David Sullivan in the Evening Standard marking the tenth anniversary of Sullivan and David Gold taking over the club. It's interesting to look at the Standard's 'rollercoaster ride' summary of the ten years. There certainly hasn't been the promised progress of qualifying for the Champions League in seven years. Basically the club has stood still, starting off struggling in the Premiership and ten years later still struggling in the Premiership.

There have been some positives; the owners saving the club from bankruptcy through their loans (for which they are being repaid); winning the Play-Off Final in 2012 under Sam Allardyce; finishing seventh in the final season at the Boleyn and finishing tenth a couple of times under Big Sam and Pellegrini. But also a lot of lows, no trophies, relegation under Avram Grant, the pitch invasion against Burnley, the problems of the London Stadium, having FC Astra as a Romanian bogey side and the sackings of Grant, Allardyce, Bilic and Pellegrini.

There doesn't seem to have been a coherent plan. Any club that veers from Gianfranco Zola to Avram Grant, Sam Allardyce, Slaven Bilic, David Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini and Moyes again doesn't know what it wants. Recruitment has veered from brilliant signings like Payet to wasting lots of money on underachieving strikers. Too little has been spent on defenders and goalkeepers. While with the sacking of Mario Husillos there is still no director of football.

Above all there's been the issue of the new stadium. It's in the right place with the right capacity, but the wrong design.The club is in a better position financially with 60,000 gates and better transport links and the stadium might work eventually, but given the problems of the last five seasons and lack of progress most fans would surely with hindsight have opted to remain at the Boleyn.

Things could be worse. We could have the owners of say Newcastle, Hull or Blackburn. But there doesn't seem to have been much of a strategy from the two Davids and Karren Brady beyond moving stadiums. If their next few years in charge are to be better then they need a blueprint for success and to stop simply reacting to the latest crisis.