This afternoon, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus announced to the public through a club statement that the Manchester city Under-21 youth team has appointed him as their new head coach.

Joking aside, regardless of the actual information in the statement, it is rather telling that it has been published at all. The first thing it tells us is that the club are painfully aware of how poor the protracted search for a new man looks from the outside, and how much it has frustrated sections of the fanbase. The second, rather happier thing that it tells us, though, is that an appointment absolutely must be coming within days.

Having clearly noticed the spreading discontent at the months-long process the club has undertaken to permanently replace Michael Beale, I feel there is no chance Kyril would have agreed to release a statement promising an ‘imminent’ appointment were there any possible chance of it falling through at this late hour. Surely, both he and the club more generally would know that to do this would effectively be to commit ownership suicide – he and Speakman would probably be hounded out before we find out who we’re playing in Spain this summer!

Obviously, there is nothing of substance in this message to suggest any candidate in particular has been earmarked for the role. We all know by now the long list of names linked over the past few months – Still, Rosenior, Heckingbottom et al – and this statement clarifies nothing except that the club want them to be the right candidate.

Well, yes, you’d certainly hope so.

 Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

Once again, more telling is not the detail of who they have chosen – it’s how they’ve qualified it below. There is an explicit admission of culpability for the failures of 2024, a pledge to have learnt from it both ‘on and off the pitch’. This is something very rarely seen among the owners of elite football clubs – billionaires aren’t fond of admitting guilt – and it is something which shouldn’t be overlooked by Sunderland fans.

For all of the aspects of Kyril’s ownership we can criticise – and there are a handful, of course – the acceptance of fault and willingness to improve is generally the mark of an owner who recognises the need to adapt, to take care not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Where we are right now is the litmus test of those words. Like many Sunderland fans, I am frustrated and disappointed with the club’s showing this calendar year. I am not enamoured with the decision making that brought us Beale and then Mike Dodds, nor the recruitment of forwards since Ross Stewart. I do not feel a great deal of excitement for the coming season. However, I recognise that the men I am criticising for making these decisions are also the men that brought us Stewart in the first place, oversaw the recruitment of players like Jack Clarke and Amad, brought in Tony Mowbray as head coach, and ultimately had us some injuries and a final away from the Premier League in 2023.