Sunderland had stormed to promotion in 1998-99, amassing 105 points and blowing away all comers. It had been a season built on a solid defence – with young keeper Thomas Sorensen, enjoying a debut season in English football, protected well by Chris Makin, Paul Butler, Andy Melville and Michael Gray – as well as a blistering attack; Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn served well by Nicky Summerbee and Allan Johnston, with Daniele Dichio and Michael Bridges more than capable understudies.
The midfield was
generally prompted by skipper Kevin Ball, Lee Clark and Alex Rae, and as a unit the team had performed exceptionally well.
While the team held incredible potential – underlined by Gray and Phillips receiving England caps in the week’s preceding this day – there was a distinct lack of top-flight experience, Niall Quinn and Lee Clark being two of the handful to have played regularly in the higher echelons of English football for more than one season
With Clark, Bridges and Johnston on their way out of the club, and Melville already departed on a free, Reid needed both quality reinforcements as well as some Premiership know-how, and on this day in 1999 he landed someone who firmly ticked both boxes.
Steve Bould was a household name in English football. The centre back had been a key player in Arsenal’s League Championship teams of 1989, 1991 and 1998, as well as winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1994. He’d spent 11 years at Highnury, playing 274 league games after joining from Stoke City, and had won a couple of England caps, too.
In his later years at the Gunners, the now 36-year-old had played a back-up role but had just signed a new deal at the club. However, that didn’t deter Reid, who knew Bould would be tempted by the opportunity to play more regularly.
Arsenal originally wanted £1m for the defender, who Arsene Wenger held in incredibly high esteem, but Sunderland eventually agreed upon a £500,000 deal to send the defender north – and on this day in 1999, the deal was announced as being agreed, with the formalities set to be completed after the weekend.
Bould’s agent Steve Kutner told the Sunderland Echo:
Steve is desperate to join Peter Reid at Sunderland. He has signed a two-year contract at Arsenal in the last couple of weeks, which tells you how highly Arsene Wenger thinks of him, but he feels he has plenty still to offer and wants first-team football.
Other clubs had approached us, but as soon as Sunderland came in Steve wanted to be nowhere else.
After leaving Arsenal you need to go to a big club with good support and, most importantly, ambition, and Sunderland was the perfect choice for Steve.
He has a good relationship with Peter Reid and looks forward to helping to cement Sunderland’s presence in the Premiership.
Steve’s away for a short break at the moment, but he’ll be in Sunderland on Tuesday to complete the formalities and will go on the pre-season tour on Thursday.
By joining Sunderland, Bould sacrificed a testimonial at Arsenal, something which no doubt was taken into account when negotiating his deal at Sunderland, and he went on to play a key role in the team’s barnstorming start to the new season which saw us sit third at Christmas.
An injury during the second half of the campaign curtailed his season, and the following year he managed just one sub appearance before having to call it a day.
In total, the defender made just 21 starts for the club in all competitions; however performed so highly and played such a key role in those games that Reid would surely look back on it as money well spent. Bould was brought in to provide experience and leadership, and he did that in spades – the fact Wenger brought him back to Arsenal as part of his management team underlines his credentials in that regard.
As well as Bould, another experienced name that, according to reports, was all but certain to arrive at the Stadium of Light was Chelsea skipper Dennis Wise, with the 32-year-old apparently waiting until after his testimonial at the end of July to complete the deal. That, of course, didn’t materialise, and while Wise was on the field for our opening Premiership game, it was in the blue of Chelsea.
Other names strongly linked were Montpellier midfielder Xavier Gravelaine and Lens’ Alex Nyarko, as Sunderland looked to strengthen an already heavily talented team, while another of Reid’s targets – Ajax’s Sunday Oliseh, was reported to have signed for Juventus.
