It’s often hailed as the golden era of Sunderland AFC in the modern era.
Reidy and his kings roared their way to the Premier League, securing promotion with a then record-breaking 105 points while playing swashbuckling football, before establishing themselves at the top table of English football with two successive seventh-placed finishes.
Perhaps Sunderland were ahead of their time – or the first of their kind in the Premier League era. While some clubs promoted to the top flight in the 1990s made a reasonable fist of it, including Nottingham Forest, Derby, and Leicester, most had gone straight back down.
Middlesbrough showed their ambition with a new stadium. They were also the first of the newly-promoted sides during that period to really splash the cash on players, but while the likes of Juninho and Ravanelli got them to cup finals, they were never mainstays in the Premier League.
Sunderland, on the other hand, had a bigger new stadium. Peter Reid had assembled a team that took the top division by storm at very little cost, and the Black Cats were viewed as a club reborn, with seemingly no limits as to what could be achieved.
THIS PICTURE CAN ONLY BE USED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF AN EDITORIAL FEATURE. NO WEBSITE/INTERNET USE UNLESS SITE IS REGISTERED WITH FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PREMIER LEAGUE. Sunderland footballer Kevin Philips (left) presents his manager Peter Reid with the Carling Manager of the Month award for December. Reid steered his side to victories over Ipswich Town, Bradford City and Middlesbrough and a draw against Arsenal, with their solitary defeat during that period coming against Leeds United. (Photo by Owen Humphreys - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
THIS PICTURE CAN ONLY BE USED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF AN EDITORIAL FEATURE. NO WEBSITE/INTERNET USE UNLESS SITE IS REGISTERED WITH FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION PREMIER LEAGUE. Sunderland footballer Kevin Philips (left) presents his manager Peter Reid with the Carling Manager of the Month award for December. Reid steered his side to victories over Ipswich Town, Bradford City and Middlesbrough and a draw against Arsenal, with their solitary defeat during that period coming against Leeds United. (Photo by Owen Humphreys - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
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Chairman Bob Murray was taking the plaudits for the shrewd and forward-thinking way in which he was running the operation. He had floated the club on the stock exchange just a few years earlier, generating funds to build the Stadium of Light for a bargain £20 million, and was drawing up plans for the exciting new Academy of Light.
To move to the next level, however, big decisions had to be made. The team that Peter built couldn’t go on forever and investment in the playing side was needed.
Recruitment was very different back then. Foreign imports were already commonplace in the Premier League but unless they were household names, clubs were taking something of a gamble. They could send scouts abroad, rely on reports from overseas contacts, or, in some case,s watch video (VHS) footage.
Chairman – usually well-meaning local businessmen - would often be assisted by a chief executive (John Fickling in the case of Sunderland), but managers still ran the football side of things. Directors of football had been introduced, but hadn’t been a success in the English game at that point and were often regarded as an interfering presence for managers.
There were coaching staff, medical teams and other key appointments, but staffing was not at the level seen at football club’s today.
Sunderland’s Niall Quinn celebrates with Kevin Phillips after the second goal (Photo by John Walton/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Sunderland’s Niall Quinn celebrates with Kevin Phillips after the second goal (Photo by John Walton/EMPICS via Getty Images)
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Now, football clubs don’t just have scouts based in different countries; they are international organisations in their own right, while the Premier League has its own summer series with English clubs competing against each other abroad.
The Premier League and its clubs are global brands. West Ham have ‘London’ on their badge to appeal to overseas audiences, while every English team has matches streamed on TVs, phones and other devices across the globe.
Revenue from TV deals and the commercial side of sport is huge. While there are significant financial imbalances between football’s elite clubs and those further down the chain, there is no doubt that clubs that reach the Premier League and stay there can build considerable wealth.
The stakes are too high for local businessmen now, with most top flight clubs owned by wealthy tycoons from abroad, who in some cases have the leverage to bring other investors to the table.
On the business side, there are commercial directors, marketing teams and more, while the football manager has evolved into a head coach who now works in harmony with directors of football and sporting directors.
They’re part of a much bigger team, with extensive medical and sports science staff, analysts, dietary experts, set-piece coaches and other specialists. Just look at the level of Sunderland’s staffing intake this summer.
The Sunderland of 2001 may have been ahead of their time. And perhaps the successive seventh-placed finishes, often criticised for not being higher or sustained over a longer period, were great achievements.
Reid’s team, with Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips ably assisted by some fine teammates, certainly made the most of their attributes. It’s quite possible they overachieved.
But whatever you make of Murray’s financial outlay and Reid’s spending of it, did the club really have the capital to compete with the established elite long term? I don’t think we did, while the football landscape back then was less receptive to such growth.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - MARCH 25: Bob Murray, chairman of Sunderland, watches from the stands during the Barclays Premiership match between Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light on March 25, 2006 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - MARCH 25: Bob Murray, chairman of Sunderland, watches from the stands during the Barclays Premiership match between Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light on March 25, 2006 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
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Nowadays, we can look at how clubs such as Brighton and Brentford have built on Premier League survival to grow, evolve and secure themselves financially.
It didn’t work out for Sunderland in 2001, but perhaps we’ve come full circle. Now finally, the stadium that Bob built has been given a facelift and still has potential for expansion.
In Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, we have a wealthy, highly intelligent, energetic young owner from a family renowned for running football clubs. He knows the blueprint for growth and said recently that our potential is limitless.
Kyril also has the backing of Juan Sartori and a full complement of specialists from Kristjaan Speakman and Florent Ghisholfi, to David Bruce, Regis Le Bris and everyone in between.
We have a long-term vision, or “the model” as it is often referred to. Now thanks to our promotion-winning heroes tapping into the Premier League wealth, we are hopefully seeing the fruits of our plan coming together.