Len ashurst autobiography of miss

In my previous piece on Sunderland in the 1980s, I made the point that that decade represented more innocent and spontaneous times for the Sunderland fan.

That is true, in the sense that money had not taken over football to the extent that it has in the English Premiership now. Back then, one could simply decide to go to most games unplanned, paying a reasonable entry fee at the turnstiles.

But there was a major downside – the issue of football hooliganism and the effect it had on the game.

More about that in a moment.

One link to present-day football is that Sam Allardyce was an imposing centre half for us in 1980-81, making 27 appearances and scoring 2 goals. According to his autobiography, he never moved his family to Wearside which made his stay at Roker very time-limited.

When writing this blog, I was listening to the 5Live commentary on Big Sam’s first game as manager of West Bromwich Albion, with the inevitable thoughts

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Who is the one player Sunderland almost signed but didn’t that you really wish we had?

Gav says...

I can assure you, it had nothing to do with the city, club or manager. In 2009, I had flown up from Portsmouth to see Steve Bruce, I got a tour of the training ground — which is absolutely fantastic — and had agreed terms. I’d have loved to play for Steve.

But on my way home I got a call from Harry Redknapp, who wanted me at Tottenham. I was living in London at the time and I’d worked with Harry at Portsmouth and Southampton. I just felt Tottenham would be the better option and I went with my gut instinct. I hope, someday soon, your team will be back in the Premier League.

Those are the words of Peter Crouch, who it feels like had the opportunity to come to Sunderland on several occasions over the years but for whatever reason didn’t. I suppose it is colder in the north and being that tall, it must be even colder from a greater height.

Still, back in 2009 we were a much di

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