Sunderland were the 11th different club Peter Barnes had signed for in 14 transfers when he arrived with a big reputation, 22 England caps and the small matter of a goal against the Mags in the 1974 League Cup final. Unfortunately, like many tricky and well-traveled wingers (Terry Curran, for example), he didn’t have the bottle for a fight and an awful performance on his debut in a 4-1 defeat at Swindon in February 1989 was the last appearance he made in the English league. He buggered off to the USA, then Ireland and finally hung up his boots after a spell in the English Non-League.

Harrison arrived from Burnley, his 7th club, at the age of 26-, which surely says something about his consistency- and debuted in the cup win at home to York in August 1999, in which he looked a little Sluggish. It was transpired that the poor lad was suffering from hepatitis. As we did rather well that season he couldn’t force his way back into a central Midfield past Mad Alex, Stinky Lee, and Cap’n Bally. He left for Luton and Hull and is now holding down a regular place with conference side Leigh RMI.

Much to the bemusement of everyone who thought that spending three and a half million quid would guarantee us half decent player, Medina couldn’t break into the team after signing for Reidy in the summer of 2001. He then spent a season and a half eating pies and lifting weights in an attempt to build himself up. Although a few weeks drinking in the Bishop might have done the job a little quicker. Sgt Wilko eventually gave him a run out in the FA cup replay with Bolton last season, but after a tidy display where he did at least find a teammate on a regular basis, he was subbed after 90 minutes and never made it back into the team. Currently on loan to Leganes.

Singed on load from Liverpool as part of Mick Buxton’s deadline day swoop that also included Brett Angell, Matteo played in a 2-0 defeat at Barnsley. However, afterwards it emerged that the relevant papers hadn’t been signed in time and that Matteo shouldn’t have played at all. He was quickly ushered back to Anfield while Sunderland were left to sweat on whether they would be fined points or not.

John ‘Yogi’ Hughes came from Palace to join kid brother Billy in January 1973 with a CV that included 8 Scottish caps and 400 league titles from his time at Celtic. However, only a few minutes into his debut against Millwall, a Challenge that their present manager would have been proud of wrecked Yogi’s knee. Despite an attempted comeback via training in Dundee, big John retired in May, just as his similarly built replacement, Vic Halom, was putting David Harvey into Wembley net and taking home an FA Cup winner’s medal.

When Wharton stood in for Marco at Portsmouth in 1989, he became the first black player to come through the ranks at Sunderland (a distinction he still holds.) When he was released at the end of the season Pompey dived in with a trial but this came to nothing and he returned to his native South Wales where he carved out a career- if you can call it that- in the League of Wales.