Denis Smith was on the move in more ways than one in late July 1991, taking his squad to the Isle of Man whilst trying to bolster his options for the coming season.
Saturday 27 July saw Smith and the Lads setting off for a pre-season tournament in which Sunderland were due to take on Bolton Wanderers and Shelbourne in group ties before a potential final.
A sixteen-man party had been selected to travel, with injury and suspension ruling out Brian Mooney and Kevin Ball respectively. Reuben Agboola had also
been allowed to skip the tour as he’d been called up for Nigeria, missing the previous day’s photoshoot in the club’s new hummel strip so he could travel to Lagos.
Those absences meant there was room for Ian Sampson and Tony Cullen, with the full list looking like this:
Tony Norman, Tim Carter, John Kay; Paul Hardyman, Gary Bennett, Richard Ord; Ian Sampson, Gary Owers, Tony Cullen; Brian Atkinson, Paul Bracewell, Gordon Armstrong; Thomas Hauser, Peter Davenport, Marco Gabbiadini; Colin Pascoe.
Expected to meet up with the squad in Douglas was an as-yet unnamed mystery man that was the subject of a proposed deal that would’ve broken the club’s transfer record. Smith had managed to keep their identity under wraps so far, and told Echo Sport’s Geoff Storey before departure that he was aiming to get things tied up early next week:
Nothing is expected to happen over the weekend but I’m still very hopeful we will have a new player next week in the Isle of Man.
I’ve never even heard of Henk Fraser. I know most of the names of the continental players, but that’s a new one to me.
I looked at Peter Swan last season, but he’s not one of the players I’m now interested in.
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As it happened, the big money move wouldn’t happen either; the Lads did reach the Isle of Man final, losing to Stoke City on 3 August, yet it wasn’t until two days after that news of the deal breaking down came out.
Although it was disappointing not to secure Smith’s main target, the more curious fans were at least furnished with a name at that point — Feyenoord’s John de Wolf.
In time, the defender would become more familiar to supporters — and Lee Howey in particular — once he’d moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but for now, he was to remain a case of ‘what might’ve been’.
Smith might’ve envisioned de Wolf partnering up with Ball at the back, although for the time being, Bally had to stay in the North East to work on his fitness.
In order to build up some match sharpness, he’d been allowed to play on Friday night for the reserves in their Vaux Durham Senior Cup match with Gateshead. The game finished 2-2 with Ball himself getting on the scoresheet alongside Steve Gaughan, and in goal for the hosts was former Sunderland understudy Barry Richardson.
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