Born on this day is former Sunderland and Hull player Michael Turner. The defender signed for Steve Bruce’s men in 2009.
After coming through Charlton’s youth system, Turner joined Brentford. The deal was initially a loan which became permanent in November 2004. He impressed at Griffin Park, being voted Players' Player of the Year in the 2004/05 season and Supporters' Player of the Year in the 2005/06 season.
Hull signed Turner in 2006, managed by none other than Phil Parkinson during his brief spell in charge of the Tigers. After a very poor start to life in the Championship, Turner’s form turned around immensely and he became one of Hull fans’ favourite players. The following year, as Hull won promotion to the Premier League, he was voted Hull City Player of the Season.
In his first Premier League season, Turner played every single minute of every game! He was one of just two outfield players to do so, the other being Sylvain Distin of Portsmouth.
In 2009, Turner was snapped up by Sunderland who had replaced Ricky Sbragia with Steve Bruce at the helm. The deal was rumoured to be around £6 million, but was actually closer to £4 million. Turner’s debut came against his former club Hull, and he’d thought he’d scored too. He leapt up to compete with Kamil Zayatte, and under pressure the defender put it in his own net.
Turner’s time on Wearside was extremely frustrating, with many ups and downs. When he played, he was solid as a rock and aided the defence massively. However, it was his inability to stay fit which meant he never played over 20 league games in a season for us. His pace was another issue, with strikers able to get in behind far too easily.
That’s why it was no surprise when we let him go to Norwich for £1.5 million, with the defender in the last year of his contract. After five years at Carrow Road, including loan spells at Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday, he joined Southend United before announcing his retirement in 2019.
