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On this day in 1997, Nicky Summerbee made his debut for Sunderland. He came off the bench at half time away to Portsmouth in a league match, rounding out a 4-1 win by scoring our last goal.
Summerbee began his career at Swindon Town before moving to Manchester City in 1994. He became a first team regular at City, following in his dad Mike’s footsteps. Mike Summerbee was famous for being part of a front three of himself, Colin Bell and Francis Lee at Maine Road. In November '97, Summerbee came to Wearside with Craig Russell going the other way. He made his debut as a second half substitute in a 4-1 win at Portsmouth and actually scored our fourth and final goal in the comfortable win.
He made the right wing his own, supplying Niall Quinn with plenty of excellent crosses and linking up with right back Chris Makin. However, his trademark untucked shirt and swagger around the pitch was often mistaken as laziness and when times were tough Summerbee would be scapegoated by sections of Roker Park. The mercurial winger didn’t let the criticism affect him and helped push Sunderland to promotion in 1999.
In the Premier League, Summerbee was able to showcase his skills at the highest level and quickly grew comparisons to David Beckham. However, all did not go to plan that season for the wide man. He missed a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Arsenal and was spotted in the capital after the match with TV presenter Melanie Sykes. The infamous night out did not impress Peter Reid and Summerbee was in and out of the squad for the remainder of the season. He did impress on the rare occasion he did play, but was ultimately dropped from the squad as a whole for six months.
In 2001, Summerbee’s sour relationship with Reid finally came to an end as he was sent to Bolton Wanderers on a free transfer. After leaving Wearside, the winger never returned to his peak and had brief spells at the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leicester City, before finishing his career at non-league side Tamworth. After playing four games, he retired in 2006.