http://www.not606.com/showthread.ph...ong-distance-hasn-t-stopped-transfer-business Write up on the few already mentioned. Kevin Phillips ‘Super Kev’ joined Sunderland from Watford in 1997, just after their relegation from the Premier League. He scored at Wembley at the end of that season in the play-off final with Charlton that Sunderland ultimately lost 7-6 on penalties. The next season though, he scored 23 goals in the league to help fire the Wearsiders back to the top flight as champions. Despite early criticism from pundit Rodney Marsh, who suggested Phillips would struggle to score five goals in the Premier League, he went on to score 30 goals, becoming the only English player to ever to win a European Golden Boot, helping Sunderland to a record-high seventh place finish in the process. They repeated that feat in the next season too but two seasons later - 2002/03 - Phillips handed in a transfer request after being told he was not a definite starter any more, following the purchase of Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart. It was rejected and the striker still played 32 of the side’s 38 games, only managing six goals. That season the club were relegated, and because of a need to cut their wage bill, Phillips was permitted to leave for the south coast. In three seasons he scored 22 goals for Southampton before moving on to Aston Villa. He ended his playing career last season, helping Leicester gain promotion to the Premier League, and he is now a coach at the club. He scored 131 goals in all competitions in his five seasons on Wearside and is, unsurprisingly, still a hero to the fans at the Stadium of Light. Stern John Blink and you might have missed him! The Trinidad and Tobago international was brought in by manager Roy Keane in January 2007 from Derby to help his promotion push with the Black Cats. The powerful striker, although only scoring four, played 15 times by the end of the season, helping Sunderland claim the Championship title. He wasn’t prolific in front of goal but he was strong and battled well, and players around him benefited more, by the way of goals, than he did himself. He only made one appearance in the top flight, but it was a good one! He scored an 89th minute equaliser against Birmingham in Sunderland’s second game of the season to earn them a point at St Andrew’s. He left Wearside a couple of weeks later, used as part of a deal to bring fellow countryman Kenwyne Jones in the opposite direction. His one season on the south coast went well. He scored 19 goals and was the fourth top scorer in the Championship. Kenwyne Jones That brings us on nicely to the only player of our five man list to travel north from the south. Jones was brought in by Keane after their promotion to the Premier League, but it was a late deal that took the player to go on strike for it to come off. In his three seasons at Southampton (one of which was out on loan) he scored 19 goals, before spending two and a half seasons at Sunderland. The striker was popular and did very well to recover from a serious injury sustained while on international duty against England. Jones had an unusual combination of both height and speed and scored 26 goals for Keane’s – and then Steve Bruce’s – side. After links to clubs such as Tottenham and Liverpool, it came as a surprise when the club allowed him to leave for Stoke in 2010. He is now playing for Cardiff in the Championship. Kelvin Davis Davis joined Mick McCarthy’s Sunderland side in the summer of 2005, ahead of what would become one of the worst seasons in the club’s recent history. McCarthy wasn’t given much in the way of a transfer budget and largely brought in Championship-level players – Davis being one of those. He was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the division at Ipswich, but failed to make the step up to the Premier League, and when he started to make errors in key games, fans began to voice their displeasure. One memorable blunder at the Stadium of Light saw the stopper beat from roughly 45 yards by Portsmouth’s Matty Taylor. Amazingly, the Black cats made a profit from the £1.25 million they paid for Davis, when Southampton paid a reported fee of £2 million for his services in July 2006 after Sunderland had been relegated with a record-low points tally. He remains with the south coast club today, though he doesn’t feature much any more. He has done himself justice at St Mary’s though, showcasing his skills a lot better than he did on Wearside. Jimmy Montgomery Ending on a high with one of, if not the, greatest goalkeepers in the club’s history. Montgomery played over 600 times for his boyhood club and was inspirational during their cup upset over the mighty Leeds United in the 1973 FA Cup final. Many consider his double save in the final to be one of the greatest double saves ever in football. The occasion and stage certainly wont have hindered that opinion. Pictures of manager Bob Stokoe hugging his keeper at full time were fitting of the crucial role his double save had made in his side’s famous victory. Towards the end of his career though, Montgomery spent a spell on loan at the Hampshire club, playing six games for them in the old Division Two. Love this picture. please log in to view this image
Ha ha! No worries mate, board was well busy when it went up. I should just copy and paste it onto here shouldn't I?
