Very sad news for a genuine legend at Sunderland and an excellent centre half. I wonder if in 10 years heading will be no more when you read these sad stories
He was an immense centre half, a colossus for us during the '73 cup run and I was lucky enough to meet him after we won and he was an absolute gentleman, Gutted when he he left for City. So sad to hear this news,
I don’t really know enough about Brown as a manager but even if he did sign good players, he still managed to be the first manager to oversee our very first relegation, leave, come back and oversee our second relegation. Tell me I’m wrong but on the face of it he failed dismally at Sunderland and as such failed the club and its supporters.
I must confess to considering him the best manager of SAFC since I started supporting them in '62, despite the two relegations. On both occasions he arrived at a club in turmoil then had to rebuild teams from the ground up which contained a significant number of youth team members coupled with astute signings and played some great football. Indeed, if the board had not reneged on a promise made after our promotion in '64 and then not been stupid enough to try and manage the team themselves for the next few months (during which time they dismantled the best side I've seen play for us in the past nigh on 60 years) I, honestly believe we would have established ourselves as regular European competitors, and don't forget that the '73 cup winning side was essentially Brown's, not Stokoe's (only two were Stokoe signings).
I think that you'll find many that disagree with me but they will be of a far more recent vintage than myself and only looking at the reality of the stats rather than actually ever having seen the '64 promotion team play.
I’ve said it for years now that the club has been mismanaged for decades from top to bottom. Too much in-fighting and ego-driven decisions helped make a once extremely good club side fall by the wayside in comparison to others because I fail to see what cities like Liverpool and Manchester had back then that Sunderland didn’t. Even today both those cities are not all that, but, assisted by the success of their respective football teams and I’m not saying that it is all down to the teams, they have managed to be desirable places to go to. One kind of supported the other so to speak.
Sad news. Class player, always a delight to see. If a forward broke free and Dave was last man, you never worried, you knew he would casually relieve the opponent of the ball. Cost us £100.000 , (as said, originally bought as a centre forward) a lot then, but one of our best ever buys
I've seen Charlie play, apparently, but I can't remember, and when we sing who's the greatest centre half . . . . I've always sang Davey Watson is his name 'cos as far as I'm concerned he is He was 'massive' and I still remember him playing for us Denis Tueart was my first 'hero' and it's sad to think about his lack of any feelings for S.A.F.C. now . . . . I worked with his brother for a while, and he's apparently got no love for us whatsoever
