My Three Favourite Ever Sunderland Players: #4 — Phil West
03/24/2025 02:00 AM
We've all got our own list of all-time favourite Sunderland players, so who would make your top three? Next up is Phil, who's gone for three key members of the class of 1997-1999
Kevin Phillips
During the season review of Sunderland's 1997/1998 Division One campaign (which you can see here), narrator Simon O'Rourke mentions that upon his arrival, the former Watford man wasn't the 'big-name striker that many fans had hoped for'.
A similar argument has often reared its head during the Kristjaan Speakman era but when Phillips finally departed Wearside in 2003, having established himself as one of the greatest strikers in our history, those early murmurings seemed like a distant memory.
In the two decades that've since passed, many centre forwards have led the line for the Lads but few have come close to living up to the legacy created by Phillips.
He was the focal point of some of the greatest Lads teams I've ever watched and after giving second tier defences the runaround for two seasons, subsequently helped us to two seventh-place top flight finishes.
Furthermore, he won the European Golden Boot in 1999/2000 (have a look at the other names on the list in order to get a sense of the scale of that achievement) and he did so having arrived for a modest fee at a time when a new dawn was breaking on Wearside following our move to the Stadium of Light.
After a prolific maiden campaign that ended in Wembley heartbreak, Phillips (despite suffering an injury that kept him out for four months) and Sunderland hit back in stunning fashion in 1998/1999, ripping the league apart and reclaiming a place in the top flight.
The rest, as they say, is history as he then his sights on defying the likes of Rodney Marsh, who claimed that the step up in quality would be too great and that Premier League goals would be harder to come by.
Trying to choose a favourite Phillips goal is a hard task.
They were frequent, they were often of the highest class and on countless occasions, he managed to get us a goal out of nothing. At the time, the Sunderland forward line was blessed with a wealth of options but one man always stood out and it didn't matter whether we were at home or away — you knew that a Phillips goal was almost a safe bet.
There are so many to choose from that those of us who were fortunate enough to see Phillips in his red and white prime will never be able to forget what he gave us and the importance of the goals he scored for Sunderland. He's a red and white icon and he always will be.
Niall Quinn
I daresay it's become a cliche for fans of my age to list the Irish icon among our favourite Sunderland players of all time, but who cares?
Like Phillips, Quinn arrived at Sunderland during a time of transition as we embarked upon our first ever season in the FA Carling Premiership.
Even though the 1996/1997 campaign — during which Quinn suffered with injuries and Sunderland often had to rely on the likes of David Kelly and Paul Stewart — ended in relegation, the big striker was only just getting started and like Phillips, he'd attained godlike status by the time he hung up his disco pants and football boots in 2003.
Why is Quinn so highly regarded? Because of his transparent love for the club, the goals he scored, the leadership he exhibited and the connection he had with the fans.
Like Kevin Ball and Luke O'Nien, he took the club and the city to his heart and in return, the supporters have never forgotten what he did for us in a variety of roles encompassing player, ambassador and chairman.
Quinn was a unique breed of striker.
As good in the air as you'd expect for a man of such stature, he was deceptively good with the ball at his feet and his knack of finding the right position at the right time led to many of his most crucial goals being scored. As the perfect foil for Phillips, he helped to bring the best out of his strike partner and they put the fear of God into defences all around the country during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
He was resilient, too, as we saw when heartbreak befell the Lads at Wembley in 1998, with the playoff final cruelly lost on penalties and Michael Gray the unfortunate fall guy.
Post-match, Quinn fronted up and spoke to the media, defiantly stating that next season, Sunderland would prove that they were the best footballing side in the division — a prediction that came spectacularly true during a riotous 1998/1999 campaign.
Following his retirement, Quinn continued to burnish his legacy by remaining active within the community and then lifting the club out of the doldrums by leading a takeover bid in 2006 — something that brought new hope to fans scarred by a brutal Premier League season.
A damn good footballer, a man of the people and above all else, a thoroughly decent human being. That's Niall Quinn.
Allan Johnston
Back in my schooldays, a friend of mine lived fairly close to 'Magic' and he once made me jealous by revealing that he occasionally played football with the Scottish attacker— something I never quite forgave him for, because I absolutely idolised the elusive winger and would've done anything to share a pitch with him!
Still, at least I could satisfy myself by watching the 1997 signing from Rennes tearing it up in red and white and to my mind, it wasn't until Jack Clarke came along that a player of comparable ability patrolled the left flank at the Stadium of Light.
Johnston had everything you'd want in a winger: touch, balance, awareness, two excellent feet, and a keen eye for goal.
When on form, he could either make opposition full backs look silly by turning them inside out with a stepover or two or he could go a little more direct, whipping accurate balls into the middle for the likes of Niall Quinn to bury, and with the energetic Michael Gray always on hand to provide an option on the outside, he rarely carried the burden alone.
What was so good about Johnston was that he never made things look anything less than effortless.
Not quite as languid as Nicky Summerbee, there was a smoothness about Magic's play that was deeply satisfying to watch and his calling card of cutting inside and curling the ball behind a goalkeeper's despairing dive worked time and time again.
His Sunderland career didn't end fittingly as he left the club following a fallout with Peter Reid, but despite a relatively short stay on Wearside, he was a player I never tired of watching and he remains one of the standard bearers for top quality red and white wing play.
