Welcome to the first part of two where I profile five diamond signings made by Sunderland AFC over time. Picking a total of ten players for this was incredibly hard indeed, in fact just as hard as it was picking the duds. But pick them I have done so, and whilst some might not agree with the selections made, that’s because they are my thoughts and those alone. Who would make your lists? Tell us because I’m sure as eggs are eggs, you will have a different train of thought to me. In the meantime, enjoy.
KEVIN PHILLIPS
Signed by: Peter Reid
Fee: £325,000 (£600,000 with add-ons included)
SAFC Appearances/Goals: 235/130
It is hard to comprehend even now that 'Super Kev' wasn’t always the poaching striker that we remember so well in the colours of the Lads. In fact, we could have seen him competing for a spot at right back if it hadn’t been for an injury crisis. Phillips started off his career at another team in red and white stripes, Southampton but couldn’t break into their first team and was given a free transfer by Chris Nicholl in 1991 with a couple of reserve team outings the best he could muster. Non-league Baldock Town took a chance on the 19-year-old and it took the aforementioned injury crisis to unleash the goal machine with a brace on his first start as a striker.
From then on he never looked back. Watford paid just £30,000 to take him to Vicarage Road after two and half seasons there we signed him for what has to be one of the best bargain signings ever made. After his first 15 games for the Lads, he had just four goals but once he got into that scoring groove then there was no stopping him. We had six seasons of him and plenty of memorable goals, before our relegation in 2003 saw him go back to Southampton for £3.25 million.
He hung his boots up in 2013 after a spell at Leicester and was most recently manager at South Shields before leaving in strange 'mutual consent' circumstances with promotion in the bag. Weird though, despite his incredible scoring feats for the Lads, it didn’t transmit to international football with no goals in his eight England appearances.
JULIO ARCA
Signed by: Peter Reid
Fee: £3.5 million
SAFC Appearances/Goals: 177/23
One of the best South American talents ever to grace the Sunderland colours, and such an awesome player to watch glide across the hallowed turf. 'Hoolioo' started off his career in his homeland and wowed Reidy in an Under-21 international, so much that he had to sign him for the Lads. That was in 2000, but not after a bit of a signing battle as apparently those up the road and Leeds United were both interested in enticing him out of Argentina - but Reidy got there first. There was though a slight delay as he awaited the issue of an Italian passport which would make things easier.
We saw five and half seasons of him, and his appearance tally would have been definitely higher if it hadn’t been blighted by injuries here and there. He developed a knack of scoring some spectacular goals, especially from range or from a dead ball situation, but left us after we were relegated in 2006. He joined the Smoggies for £1.75 million and made nearly 200 appearances for them, with a series of injuries again blighting a higher tally. His professional career ended in 2013 with them, but he kept himself active by playing Sunday League on Wearside. September 2015 saw him sign for South Shields (where he’s now back as manager) for three more seasons before retiring for good. Despite his ability, he never played for the Argentine national side despite playing (and captaining) at U20 level with future internationalists such as Javier Saviola in the same team.
ROSS STEWART
Signed by: Lee Johnson
Fee: £300,000
SAFC Appearances/Goals: 81/40
A current player features next on this list, and he deserves it for what he has done for the Lads in such a short space of time. A boyhood Rangers fan apparently (not that I’m personally going to hold that against him if true), the 'Loch Ness Drogba' cut his football teeth in the youth ranks at St. Mirren, Celtic and Partick Thistle before going the hard way into football via Scottish Junior standard before breaking into the league structure with Albion Rovers (the team followed by author Irvine Welsh) as a 20 year old. That single season saw him score 12 times in 33 games and a transfer to Paisley and a reunion with St. Mirren again.
Alas it didn’t work out with just three goals in 21 games for the Buddies in that short time, a loan spell at Alloa had been more productive (10 in 23), and saw Stewart head to the Highlands and Dingwall for a modest fee for around £30,000 where he really started to blossom. With other clubs apparently sniffing, Sunderland's then-boss Lee Johnson signed him on winter deadline day 2021 and he scored on his debut as a half time substitute at Accrington where the Lads won 2-0. He’s such a key figure for us these days that he is a focal point in attack whether it be in the air or on the deck. That said, I don’t know why my wife thinks he looks a bit like Marlon Dingle from Emmerdale...
KEVIN BALL
Signed by: Denis Smith
Fee: £300,000 (apparently)
SAFC Appearances/Goals: 389/27
One of my personal favourites in all the time I have followed the Lads, and a bit of a cult hero to many others as well. Kevin Ball started his football career as a trainee for Coventry City in the early eighties but didn’t make it into the Sky Blues' first team at all, being released at the end of the 1981-82 season. It was destination Portsmouth next and that’s where he started to make his name as a tough-tackling central midfielder, the hard case that many teams at that time tended to frequent and protect their more skilful players.
'Bally' made over 100 appearances for Pompey and it was those afore mentioned abrasive abilities that persuaded Denis Smith to bring him from one end of the country to the North East. How we roared with approval when he put in one of those hard tackles that would leave opposing players in a heap, “Bally’s gonna get ya” was a common anthem heard from the Fulwell End by some of us more experienced supporters. After almost a decade of service, he wound down his playing career with Fulham and Burnley before coming “home” to hold various roles in a coaching and non-coaching perspective ahead finally departing the scene in February 2022: ending a total of 32 years service to the Club.
JERMAIN DEFOE
Signed by: Gus Poyet, Lee Johnson
Fee: Free (swap with Altidore)
SAFC Appearances/Goals: 100 /37
One of the things you could guarantee wherever Jermain Defoe has gone, is goals, and bucket loads of them as well. Jermain retired in 2022 after scoring a phenomenal 305 of them in 763 senior appearances, and we were blessed to see a handful of those for the Lads. He’s had a series of clubs in his time but none have stopped him doing what he does best. When he signed for Sunderland in January 2015 in of the most incredibly engineered transfer fees in SAFC history (Toronto got Jozy Altidore in exchange), he was 32 but his predatory goalscoring instincts were as sharp as ever.
Two and half seasons in the red and white saw him bag almost a goal every other game, my personal favourite being the one against the Mags on Easter Sunday 2015. An absolute worldie if there ever was one. When we were relegated in 2017, he exercised a relegation release clause from his contract and joined Bournemouth (he’d been on loan there in the early stages of his career) despite rumoured interest from the Mags too.
After a less than productive spell on the South Coast, he headed to Rangers where he would pick up remarkably his first ever league title in a 20-year career. When he found himself surplus at Ibrox, he was given a free transfer in 2022 to rejoin the Lads. The second spell was less than productive, and after seven league games without a goal: he called time on a fabulous career. Whilst in that first Lads spell, he befriended wee Bradley Lowery and those images of them together are to this day, priceless. Defoe also scored an impressive 20 international goals from 57 caps for England.
