Midfield grafter with a decent eye for goal – he in fact scored eight times during the 1992/93 season. Unfortunately Cunnington suffered from three problems. Firstly he was ridiculously overpriced – at £650,000 he was close to the then club record fee paid for any Sunderland player. Secondly he was overhyped, yes that “He’s a better player than Platt” classic from Bobby Ferguson. Finally, he was hopelessly injury prone, in fact he must remain the only footballer in the history of the game to suffer serious ankle ligament damages after twisting his ankle walking off the pitch after being substituted, an injury sustained in the ‘prestigious’ Anglo-Italian Cup against Tranmere in 1993.

Sunderland’s very own invisible man. Gaughaun is believed to have stalked the corridors of Roker Park, a ghost like figure, never getting near to the first team start. Signed on a free from Doncaster, his then manager, the late Billy Bremner, claimed he could have sold Gaughaun to Notts forest for a £1 million fee, months before his move to Sunderland…but he did not. We never found out why. Gaughaun moved on to Darlington two years after his arrival at Sunderland in the summer of 1990 for a “nominal fee”

Signed for a massive £250,00 in January 1981 by Ken Knighton on the recommendation of his then Assistant Manger Frank Clark. A man John Gibson once claimed pulled more birds than George Best during his time at Newcastle, even though in later years Clark was described by sky TV’s football comic Bob Mills as having the facial expression of a “Bassett Dog which had just swallowed a wasp.” As for Bowyer he was sold back to Forest for £45,000 a year later. Proving again how only Brian Clough could get the very best out of ordinary players.

Ken Knighton final buy as Sunderland Boss costing a very expensive £140,000 from Bristol City in January 1981. Ritchie then proceeded to go ten first team games without a goal before ending his drought with a hat trick against Birmingham City- the game which immediately followed the sacking of Ken Knighton as team boss. Apart from this quirk of fate Ritchie was remembered for little other than returning to Bristol City in a cut price deal a year later.

Plucked out of obscurity by Peter Reid from Macclesfield the youngster is remembered as the one Sunderland player to be ruled out of a senior game on the grounds that he had been arrested before kick-off, a crisis which occurred before Sunderland’s Coca Cola Cup tie at Bury last season. His arrest, during a complex Manchester murder enquiry, led to a press field day of sleaze allegations regarding Sunderland players as Sunderland AFC crawled through September 1997 resembling the footballing equivalent of the John Major Government at the height of the Back To Basics/sleaze fiasco. Unlike John Major Sunderland survived its “crisis” stronger for the experience. Byrne however did not-at least in the footballing sense. He was transferred to Stockport several months later.

Just less that twenty years ago the then Chairman of Tow Law Football Club recommended that Sunderland take their left winger on a week’s trail. They did. Ken Knighton told him to forget all about football –suggesting the youngster would never make it at any level. Several Months later Bill McGarry signed the obscure winger for Newcastle- he paid no fee. He made his debut for Newcastle United in late 1980. He later fulfilled his boyhood dream of playing for Sunderland, but by then it was too late. The year was 1997, he was 35, his name was Chris Waddle, maintained his faith in Barry Dunn, a winger form Blue Star. Dunn was later transferred to Darlington.