Short ‘emotionally invested in SAFC’, insists Bain

ELLIS Short is leaving London to move back to the USA but Sunderland chief executive Martin Bain insists the Black Cats’ billionaire owner is not ‘disengaged’ from the situation on Wearside.

Short’s home in Chelsea is on the market for £49.5m as he relocates to Florida, where his tennis protege son has taken up a scholarship at an academy run by the legendary ladies’ champion of the 1970s and 1980s, Chris Evert.

That trans-Atlantic move explains why, after being open to offers for the club for several years, Short has taken a more proactive approach to finding a buyer over the last 12 months, having commissioned a New York-based investment bank to produce what was effectively a sales brochure, and then entering into talks with a German group in the summer before that deal ultimately fell through.

But while Short, to the fury of Sunderland fans, has ceased dipping into his own pocket to bankroll a sizeable transfer budget, Bain insisted last month the owner will continue to fund the Black Cats’ sizeable losses which stood at around £33m for the 2015-16 season in the latest available accounts.

And Bain says anyone suggesting Short, who has owned the club outright for nine years, does not care about Sunderland any more is simply wrong. “The fact that he’s not around so much and the fact that fans don’t see the level of spending on the squad that they’re used to and our performances are where they are, then there’s an automatic assumption that the owner is disengaged, that he doesn’t care about the football club, “said Bain.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. He interacts with me and I believe he’s emotionally invested in Sunderland AFC.”