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While most of the planet’s football fans were eagerly anticipating the World Cup final that was due to take place the following day, Sunderland supporters still had one or two local matters on their mind on 24 June 1978.
There was admittedly a link to the Argentina/Netherlands showdown, as until that contest was over, Roker supporters wouldn’t know whether Jimmy Adamson was going to land his preferred target for the chief coach’s role recently vacated by Stan Ternent, who’d moved to Blackpool.
The Sunderland boss had already approached Sheffield Wednesday’s Ken Knighton and sounded him out, with the story going public on the eve of the final, yet the pair felt it was appropriate not to make a final decision until Owls gaffer Jack Charlton was back on home soil — and that wouldn’t happen until his punditry obligations for ITV were done with.
Having previously offered Knighton a position when he first succeeded Bob Stokoe in 1976, Adamson was hoping that this time he would get his man. Charlton would’ve doubtless understood Knighton’s desire to come and work in the North East, given his own background, and so it proved when on 4 July, it was announced that the switch had been rubber stamped.
Syd Farrimond meanwhile, who’d left Halifax Town for Wearside during the previous season and was also thought to have been in the running for the post, was still expected to remain on Adamson’s backroom staff, working alongside deputy manager Dave Merrington, assistant manager Dave Blakey and George Herd — a fan favourite as a player in red and white during the 1960s who would now be focusing on the youth team.
Chief Scout Charlie Ferguson was also on board, leaving Farrimond to take care of the reserves for the time being.
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It later emerged that Knighton had been in demand. Since hanging up his boots at Hillsborough, he’d quickly forged a reputation as a promising young coach and one of his former clubs in Hull City had also been keen to bring him in.
However, there was certainly no bad blood as far as Wednesday were concerned, with their departed employee subsequently being thanked for sending a good luck telegram to the squad prior to the start of their season.
By that stage, Charlton may have had other things on his mind, as he too had been linked with a return to one of his old clubs in early July following the decision by Leeds United to relieve Jimmy Armfield of his Elland Road duties.
World Cup or not, it was clear that on the domestic scene, various football figures were still jostling ahead of the resumption of the Football League. Knighton wasn’t the only name in the press that would’ve caught the collective eye of the Roker faithful on the 24th, with the legendary Dave Watson said to be considering an approach from Spanish giants Real Madrid.
The England international had cemented his Three Lions place since his transfer from Sunderland to Manchester City in 1975 but was now interested in the possibility of moving to the continent; the man himself confirming that West Germany was another potential destination if a side were willing to meet The Sky Blues’ apparent £500,000 valuation.
Come the early 1980s, and once Knighton had worked his way up to the position of manager before being replaced by Alan Durban, Watson was tipped to make what would’ve been a sentimental return to Sunderland, although later in that decade it was veteran defender Alan Kennedy who actually came back to Sunderland when he signed for his hometown club in 1985.
Hugely decorated during his time with Liverpool — a club he’d joined from Newcastle United in August 1978 — he’d previously been the subject of transfer speculation and a supposed written bid from Leeds was also taking up column inches on this day.
That piece, along with the Knighton and Watson articles, were all as prominent on the back page of _The Jornal_ as their Buenos Aires preview.