Failings in the transfer market spell end for Reid

Expensive foreign flops lead to the dramatic downfall of the manager who was once hailed as the saviour of Wearside

If the people of Sunderland seek Peter Reid's monument, they should look up into the evening sky, where the beams from the Stadium of Light spear up into the night. But for his coming to Wearside in the bleak spring of 1995, when the club was careering towards the old Third Division, Roker Park would probably not have become a housing estate and England would no more be staging their most vital European Championship qualifier there than they would take advice from Eileen Drewery.

Asked what was the most vital goal of his seven years by the Wear, Reid replied that it was the one scored by Martin Smith against Swindon which ensured Sunderland did not slide away to become a Stoke or a Burnley, clubs whose chief diet is fond nostalgia.

The following season was a wonderful time to be a citizen of Sunderland. The club was a close-knit thing and Reid was probably bigger than it as he organised a limited, hard-working team to the First Division championship just as Newcastle's 12-point lead was being fatally washed away, their defeats cheered to the echo in pubs across the city centre.

In truth, Reid had achieved too much too soon. While all the resources Sunderland possessed were diverted into building the Stadium of Light, Reid struggled vainly to ensure it opened with top-flight football. That he failed on the final day of the season and went down with 40 points was, Reid thought, more of an achievement than winning promotion in the first place. "It's not the end of the world," he remarked as Sunderland's fate was settled at Wimbledon. "It just feels like it."

Reid's relationship with Sunderland's chairman, Bob Murray, was both strange and close. Although they were differing characters, Murray shy and soft-spoken, Reid brash and loud, they managed to go on holiday together with the former saying his manager taught him "how to drink". Reid also shielded his chairman following relegation in 1997, claiming the board had made generous funds available to him when in fact the signing of the veteran Chris Waddle for £75,000 proved to be the limit of their budget.

Over the past 12 months they have drifted apart and, as his manager shouldered the brunt of the fury directed from the stands, Murray became almost invisible. He uttered not one word in support of the man he once described as "a Brian Clough for the new millennium", but, as David O'Leary discovered when sacked by Peter Ridsdale (a man he had dedicated his book to), friendships with chairmen are transitory things.

Murray certainly benefited from his manager's transfer policy. Reid's ability to spend small for big returns proved remarkable. Kevin Phillips, winner of the European Golden Boot, was brought in for an initial £350,000 from Watford while Jody Craddock, Thomas Sorensen and Darren Williams cost less than £1m between them. Together, they formed the nucleus of the team that failed so dramatically to win the 1998 play-off final with Charlton, losing in a penalty shoot-out after a 4-4 draw, and won the First Division title with 105 points the following year, when Sunderland played a style of football dramatically at odds with the stagnant, tactically bankrupt stodge amid which Reid's regime foundered.

It was only when he tried the same bargain-hunting in Europe, that the formula fell apart. If Reid made some of the best signings in the last five years, he also made some of the worst. Carsten Fredgaard, Milton Nuñez, Lilian Laslandes, Nicolas Medina cost a total of £12m and started not 10 games between them. Medina struggled even to make the reserves.

Curiously, when he finally did buy the big names the supporters craved, Reid found that Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart appallingly ineffectual. Reid joked that Rod Stewart would have been more effective than Marcus and he was not far wrong. Flo looked afraid.

While Phillips was feeding off every one of Niall Quinn's flick-ons and Nicky Summerbee was bombarding the opposition penalty area with crosses, Sunderland had a primitive irresistibility about them. In December 1999, Sunderland demolished Chelsea with four first-half goals and Reid commented that he felt like John Wayne. The thousands who wore their red-and-white shirts in the city's faded streets likewise felt six feet tall.

In a place like Sunderland, where a population of 500,000 had not a single cinema screen to entertain them, football mattered more than almost anywhere else. In two consecutive seasons, Sunderland provided a credible challenge to Manchester United before faltering badly in the second halves of the campaign.

However, once Quinn began to fade with age, Sunderland's tactics became toothless and predictable. They deserved to be relegated in May; no side scored fewer goals, none were less fun to watch.

By then Reid's relationship with Sunderland's supporters had long soured. Sunderland are a club which boasts a larger PR department than Manchester United, but Reid's public relations were dreadful. He tended to fall out with the fans' favourite players, attended no supporters' meetings and held the most vociferous in what could best be described as mild contempt. Sunderland, he said with some justice, needed a strong manager, a dictator. Now it needs a new one.

LIFE AND TIMES OF PETER REID

1956: Born 20 June, Huyton, Merseyside.

1974: Turns professional with Bolton Wanderers in May. Goes on to play 225 League games, scoring 23 goals, for Trotters.

1977: Wins first Under-21 cap. Plays six times without scoring.

1978: Second Division champions' medal with Bolton. Misses only four games between December 1984 and April 1978.

1982: Joins Everton (159 League games, 5 goals) for £60,000.

1984: Wins FA Cup with Everton, beating Watford 2-0 in final.

1985: Everton win the League Championship and European Cup-Winners' Cup but are denied treble by Manchester United in FA Cup final.

1985: Makes international debut against Mexico in Mexico City on 9 June. England lose 1-0. Stars in the Mexico World Cup after Ray Wilkins' sending off hands him chance. England reach the semi-final but are beaten by eventual winners Argentina.

1986: Plays in FA Cup final defeat to Liverpool.

1987: Captains Everton to League title again.

1988: Joins Queen's Park Rangers (29 games, 1 goal).

1988: Makes 13th and last appearance for England as substitute in 1-0 victory over Switzerland.

1989: Joins Manchester City (113 games, 1 goal).

1990: Appointed player-manager of Maine Road club.

1993: Sacked by City chairman Peter Swales.

1993: Joins Southampton as player (7 games).

1993: Joins Notts County as player (5 games).

1994: Joins Bury as player (1 game).

1995: Appointed Sunderland manager and helps the club stave off relegation to the Second Division.

1996: Guides Sunderland to the Premiership after winning First Division. Wins Managers' Manager of the Year.

1997: Sunderland are relegated after just one season in top flight.

1998: After coming third in First Division, Sunderland lose on penalties in the play-off final to Charlton Athletic.

2001: 1 January: Sunderland move third in the Premiership with 2-1 win over Ipswich.

12 January: Named Premiership manager of the month for December.

9 May: Signs new four-year contract.

2002: 5 January: Sunderland knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by West Bromwich.

11 May: Sunderland stay up on last day of the season, drawing at home to already-relegated Derby while Ipswich lose at Liverpool.

30 August: Spends £10m on strikers Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart.

September: After Kevin Phillips is ruled out for six weeks, Sunderland slip into relegation zone with defeat at Middlesbrough.

7 October: Leaves Stadium of Light.

SUNDERLAND RECORD

356 games, 159 wins, 99 defeats, 98 draws