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The summer of 1993 saw Sunderland attempt to hit the transfer market hard, with both arrivals and departures high on manager Terry Butcher’s agenda as he looked to drastically revamp his squad.
Transfer-listed duo Gary Owers and Gordon Armstrong were said to be attracting interest from Premiership outfit Oldham Athletic.
Forward David Rush was supposedly keen on a move having turned down a new deal, but it was Mick Harford that was thought to be closest to the exit, with the Sunderland-born striker being included in a cash-plus-player offer submitted to Luton Town for Phil Gray.
Hatters boss David Pleat was on holiday so Butcher had spoken to chairman David Kohler, but with the Kenilworth Road club in financial difficulties, they were looking for a lot more than the £500,000 Sunderland had put forward — not least because a percentage of any profit made on the Northern Ireland international would have to go to his former club Tottenham Hotspur.
That said, they would’ve been keen to do the deal had the price been right, as not only would it have helped to balance the books, but because Harford was also a former Luton favourite and his return would’ve gone down very well with their supporters.
The switch would’ve suited the player also, as he still had a house in the area and was looking to move closer to his family who were still based down south and had been impacted by his son William recently fracturing his skull in a cycling accident.
In the end, he would have to settle for Coventry City, who at least represented a more manageable commute, with the Luton deal being made complicated by a rumoured takeover bid from Terry Venables.
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As it happened, Bob Murray was also somewhat frustrated with Luton and on this day, it was claimed that the Sunderland chairman had been left unimpressed with the rather unrealistic price tag they’d slapped on Gray.
Murray had stepped in when Butcher found he was getting nowhere with Kohler, yet he found the talks to be just as frustrating, with a figure of around £1 million said to be the required amount. Murray was going to raise the matter during a routine board meeting scheduled to take place on 6 July, and in the meantime he left Butcher to update the press on the current impasse, with the boss telling _The Echo’s_ chief sports writer Geoff Storey:
> _Our chairman has spoken to Luton and says their demands are unrealistic._
>
> _They are talking about a lot of money. If a deal is to be done, they will have to lower their sights._
>
> _I’m not saying that we aren’t prepared to go any higher, but there is no chance of us paying what they’re asking._
A consensus was reached later in the month and Gray did eventually link up with Butcher — although the manager would’ve preferred it had the twenty four-year-old been able to join in at the start of pre-season training on 8 July.
Starting in Whitburn before the players were bussed over to Silksworth for a series of hill runs, the group did still welcome a couple of other new faces, one of whom had already left Luton to come to Roker Park in Alec Chamberlain. The other potential arrival — a ‘mystery experienced player’ — was still being teased when the boss was talking to Storey:
> _I haven’t agreed a fee and it could be that we will have to go to a tribunal_
>
> _I’m very optimistic that he will be joining us in the next couple of days._
>
> _He wants to come, but another club has come in for him and he feels he owes it to himself to listen to what they have to offer._
>
> _He will compliment the squad in a position which needs strengthening._
Twenty four hours later, it was revealed that the man in question was midfielder Ian Rodgerson, who did indeed plump for Sunderland in a decision he admitted was influenced by the fact that his father and much of his family were staunch red and whites.
It was also announced on 7 July that Nigerian Chima Okorie and Bulgaria international Dimitar Vasev were being given trials, although Gray remained the prime target at this point, with the hierarchy on both sides hoping that a suitable compromise could be reached.