A former Sunderland staff member has spoken out about William Storey’s alleged bid to buy Sunderland in 2020.
William Storey’s name first emerged on Wearside when Stewart Donald was looking to sell up in 2020.
The controversial businessman is a co-founder of energy drink firm Rich Energy, who previously sponsored Formula One team Haas. However, less than a year after a contract was signed, Storey’s deal was terminated.
Storey had taken to Twitter to share the news that he had ‘significant funding from blue-chip backers’ to buy Sunderland, before following it up with an update that his bid had been ‘legally submitted’ and ‘welcomed by the board’ in August 2020.
Supporters began to doubt the 45-year-old’s claims and he was eventually forgotten about when Kyril Louis-Dreyfus arrived.
However, Storey then returned to Wearside two years later, with a consortium prepared to cough up £42 million to buy the football club from Louis-Dreyfus.
Unsurprisingly, Storey’s attempts once again failed and he has since failed to buy both Coventry City and Reading in the last couple of years too.
Ex-Sunderland employee slams Storey
An unnamed ex-Sunderland employee has now slammed the ‘fantasist’ and has claimed he was never ‘close’ to buying the club.
Speaking to The Athletic, they said: “He’s never been close to buying anything.
“There was nothing (at Sunderland). There was no deal. The guy was a fantasist, a Walter Mitty.
“This is his MO: he sends an email to a football club saying he wants to buy that club. Then he launches this social media blitz. ‘Yeah, I’m buying the club, I’ve got a deal, can’t say anything more than that’.”
After referring to a social media post that Storey shared of him outside the Stadium of Light, the former employee said: “People so desperately want to believe in these characters.
“It’s often the clubs in trouble so they go in there and create hype around themselves, pretend they’re plausible and that in itself will then bring investment.”
William Storey was a bullet dodged
William Storey really tried to fool the entire Sunderland fanbase over a two-year period, but it didn’t take very long for the supporters to figure him out and debunk his claims.
Seeing him attempt to buy Coventry and Reading in the years that followed makes you really grateful that we did get Kyril Louis-Dreyfus in the end – even if he has had his problems this season.
The Black Cats have had to deal with both Ellis Short and Stewart Donald over the last decade, so to have the 26-year-old at the helm is a breath of fresh air.
Like the players, he is young and is going to make mistakes, but I do think he is still best for the club right now, he just needs to get rid of Kristjaan Speakman first.
It may have been a rough season but we are still in a much better place than we have been previously. If we can bring in the right manager this summer then we will get straight back on the right path.