2006–07 Sunderland A.F.C. season

Sunderland

2006–07 season
Chairman	Niall Quinn
Manager	Roy Keane
Championship	1st
FA Cup	Third Round
Carling Cup	Second Round
Top goalscorer	League: David Connolly (13) All: David Connolly (13)
Highest home attendance	44,448 (v Burnley, 27 April 2007)
Lowest home attendance	24,242 (v West Bromwich Albion, 28 August 2007)

The 2006-07 season is the 106th full season of league football for Sunderland A.F.C.. In this season they played in the Football League Championship, and were successfully promoted as champions.

Overview

After finishing the previous season on a particularly low ebb, changes at Sunderland were inevitable. Rumours of a takeover from former fan's favourite Niall Quinn had been circulating since the spring, and towards the end of the 05/06 season the rumours were confirmed. Quinn's Drumaville Consortium agreed a fee with the club, spending £10m and buying out majority shareholder and club chairman Bob Murray.

Quinn became club chairman, and, with coach Kevin Richardson taking charge of the club's pre-season fixtures, immediately began searching for a new manager to replace former boss Mick McCarthy. After being heavily linked with Martin O'Neill and Bolton boss Sam Allardyce, Quinn decided to take the reins himself, although was keen to stress that he would step aside as soon as a top class manager became available.

Sunderland began the new season with 5 straight defeats, including an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Football League Two side Bury in the Carling Cup. In his post match interview, Niall Quinn announced that the club were close to attracting a "world class manager" to replace him, with Sky Sports claiming the following evening that former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane was lined up to take charge. Indeed, Keane agreed terms with the club on August 27, and signed a 3 year contract on August 28. Sunderland also recorded their first victory of the campaign that day, beating West Brom 2-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Keane wasted no time in bring in new additions to the squad, with a total of 6 players signing on the final day of the August transfer window. Incoming were Keane's former Manchester United team-mates Dwight Yorke and Liam Miller, former Celtic colleagues Ross Wallace and Stanislav Varga, with the latter playing for Sunderland between July 2000 and January 2002, as well as Wigan pair Graham Kavanagh and David Connolly.

The new signings paid off, with Keane winning his first two games as manager, including an impressive 3-0 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road. However, a disappointing 1-1 draw against Leicester was followed up by defeat to Ipswich Town, with Sunderland winning just one game in five following Keane's initial honeymoon period.

Sunderland soon got back to winning ways however, defeating Barnsley 2-0 at the Stadium of Light on October 21 and Hull City A.F.C 1-0 at the KC Stadium on October 28.

On December 7 2006, tabloid newspaper The Sun reported Sunderland stars Chris Brown, Ben Alnwick and Liam Lawrence had filmed themselves in an orgy. On December 8, The Sun reported that the girl in the video was just 16 years old, with the girl claiming she had no idea she was being filmed. An official investigation was launched by the club into the events. All three players were sold when the transfer window re-opened in January.

2007 proved extremely successful for the team with an unbeaten run that stretched from January 1 to April 21st. The side steadily worked its way to the top of the league into the automatic promotion places.

It was later confirmed after Derby County who were 4 points behind lost 2-0 to Crystal Palace that Sunderland were promoted and no matter what happened would return to the Premier league in either first or second place alongside Birmingham City.

Sunderland later finished in the league as Champions as they beat Luton Town 5-0 away as Birmingham City suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Preston North End on the last game of the season.

Events

• July 3 - The Drumaville Consortium have their £10m offer accepted by the club and Niall Quinn becomes chairman.
• July 25 - Following failure to attract a big-name to a Championship club, Niall Quinn appoints himself as manager.
• July 27 - Drumaville Ltd complete their takeover of the club.
• August 6 - Sunderland kick off the new season with a 2-1 defeat to Coventry at the Ricoh Arena.
• August 28 - Roy Keane is appointed as permanent manager of the club, replacing Niall Quinn, who reverts back to his role as chairman. The announcement is made following the clubs first victory of the season - a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion at the Stadium of Light.
• September 9 - Keane wins his first game in management with a 2-1 win at Derby in front of over 5,000 travelling Sunderland fans.
• December 7 - The Sun reports that three Sunderland players had filmed themselves during an orgy with a 16 year old girl.
• April 10 - Keane takes his Sunderland side from bottom to top of the league in just 37 matches as he saw his side defeat Southampton 2-1, a win which took their tally of unbeaten games to 17 in 2007.
• April 29 - Sunderland are promoted to the Premiership following Derby County's loss to Crystal Palace
• May 6 - Sunderland crowned champions on the last day of the season.

Players

Squad information

N	Pos.	Nat.	Name	Age	EU	Since	App(GS/Sub)	Goals	Ends	Transfer fee	Notes
13	GK		Ward	50	EU	2006	31 (31/0)	0	2008	Free
24	GK		Carson	36	EU	2006	0 (0/0)	0		Youth system
32	GK		Fülöp	41	EU	2007 (Winter)	5 (5/0)	0	2010	£ 0.5m
2	RB		Wright	44	EU	2002	105 (99/6)	2	2008	£ 3m
3	LB		Simpson	27	EU	2007 (Winter)	14 (13/1)	0	2007	Loan
4	CB		Evans	36	EU	2008 (Winter)	19 (19/0)	1	2008	Loan
5	CB		Cunningham	53	EU	2007	11 (11/0)	0	2007	Free
12	CB		Nosworthy	44	EU	2005	62 (54/8)	0	2010	Free
15	CB		Collins	44	EU	2004	83 (69/14)	1	2010	£ 0.4m
27	CB		Varga	52	EU	2006	54 (49/5)	2	2008	Undisclosed
29	CB		Hartley	36	EU	2006	1 (0/1)	0		Youth system
22	LB		Clarke	44	EU	2006	4 (2/2)	0		£ 0.4m
34	DM		Yorke	52	Non-EU	2006	35 (34/1)	5	2008	£ 0.2m
8	MF		Whitehead (captain)	42	EU	2004	134 (126/8)	13	2012	£ 0.15m
14	MF		T. Miller	45	EU	2005	35 (32/3)	3	2007	Free
20	MF		Arnau	43	EU	2006	2 (1/1)	0	2009	Free
23	MF		Leadbitter	38	EU	2003	60 (35/25)	7	2009	Youth system
28	MF		Kavanagh	50	EU	2006	14 (10/4)	1	2009	£ 0.5m
30	MF		J.Richardson	37	EU	2006	0 (0/0)	0		Youth system
36	MF		L. Miller	43	EU	2006	33 (25/8)	2	2009	Free
7	WI		Edwards	46	Non-EU	2007 (Winter)	16 (15/1)	5	2010	£ 1.5m
16	WI		Hysén	42	EU	2006	27 (16/11)	4	2009	£ 1.7m
18	WI		Mocquet	41	EU	2007	0 (0/0)	0	2007	Undisclosed
33	WI		Wallace	39	EU	2006	34 (22/12)	6	2009	Undisclosed
9	CF		Stokes	36	EU	2007 (Winter)	15 (8/7)	2	2010	£ 2m
10	CF		Elliott	40	EU	2004	88 (59/29)	23	2008	£ 0.19m
11	CF		Murphy	41	EU	2005	61 (35/26)	11	2011	£ 0.1m
14	CF		John	47	Non-EU	2007 (Winter)	15 (10/5)	4	2009	Undisclosed
21	CF		Smith	37	EU	2006 (Winter)	0 (0/0)	0	2007	Free
31	CF		Connolly	39	EU	2006	37 (31/6)	13	2009	£ 1.9m

• Last updated: 26 August 2007
• Source: safc.com, players' Wikipedia articles
• Ordered by position on pitch (from back right to front left).
• Player must own an EU passport or be a full, current, 'A' international to legally play in English football. (Source)
• Squad size is unlimited.

Transfer deals

In

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Out

|} Last updated: 29 Aug 2007
EU = if holds or not a European Union passport; Country: when 2 flags, 1st flag = country that plays for internationally, 2nd flag = country of birth; N = number on jersey; P = Position (for position name, pause mouse pointer on abbreviation); Name = Name on jersey (for more extensive name, pause mouse pointer on name); Age = age on the day of the signing; Moving from = only indicate the club the player was playing before start playing for this club in this season, for the type of the moving see Status column; Moving to = only indicates the club the player is going to play next, for the type of the moving see Status column; Ends = when the player's current contract ends; n/a = Not applicable.

Estimated transfer totals

Does not take into account undisclosed fees.

Total transfer fees paid:
£8.9m

Total transfer fees received:
£6.825m

Total loss or profit:
-£2.075m

Match reults

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Championship

Main article: The Football League 2006-07

Game	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Notes
1	6 August 2006	Coventry City	Away	1–2	22,366	Murphy
2	9 August 2006	Birmingham City	Home	0–1	26,668
3	12 August 2006	Plymouth Argyle	Home	2–3	24,377	Murphy, Elliott
4	19 August 2006	Southend United	Away	1–3	9,848	Stead
5	28 August 2006	West Bromwich Albion	Home	2–0	24,242	Whitehead, Neill Collins
6	9 September 2006	Derby County	Away	2–1	26,502	Brown, Wallace
7	13 September 2006	Leeds United	Away	3–0	23,037	Miller, Kavanagh, Elliott
8	16 September 2006	Leicester City	Home	1–1	35,104	Hysen
9	23 September 2006	Ipswich Town	Away	1–3	23,311	De Vos (O.G.)
10	30 September 2006	Sheffield Wednesday	Home	1–0	36,764	Leadbitter
11	14 October 2006	Preston North End	Away	1–4	19,603	Varga
12	17 October 2006	Stoke City	Away	1–2	14,482	Yorke
13	21 October 2006	Barnsley	Home	2–0	27,918	Whitehead, Brown

Date Opposition Res. Score H/A Att. Sunderland Scorers October 28 Hull City W 1-0 A 25,512 Wallace October 31 Cardiff City L 1-2 H 26,528 Brown November 4 Norwich City L 0-1 A 24,852 November 11 Southampton D 1-1 H 25,667 Wallace November 18 Colchester United W 3-1 H 25,197 S. Elliott 2, Connolly November 24 Wolverhampton Wanderers D 1-1 A 27,203 S. Elliott November 28 Queens Park Rangers W 2-1 A 13,108 Murphy, Leadbitter December 2 Norwich City W 1-0 H 27,934 Murphy December 9 Luton Town W 2-1 H 30,445 Murphy, Connolly December 16 Burnley D 2-2 A 14,798 Leadbitter, Connolly December 22 Crystal Palace L 0-1 A 17,439 December 26 Leeds United W 2-0 H 40,116 Connolly, Leadbitter December 30 Preston North End L 0-1 H 30,460 January 1 Leicester City W 2-0 A 21,975 Hysén, Connolly January 13 Ipswich Town W 1-0 H 27,604 Connolly January 20 Sheffield Wednesday W 4-2 A 29,103 Yorke, Hysén, Connolly, Edwards January 30 Crystal Palace D 0-0 H 26,958 February 3 Coventry City W 2-0 H 33,591 Yorke, Edwards February 10 Plymouth Argyle W 2-0 A 15,247 Connolly, Stokes February 17 Southend United W 4-0 H 33,376 Connolly, Hysen, John 2 February 20 Birmingham City D 1-1 A 20,941 Edwards February 24 Derby County W 2-1 H 36,049 Connolly, Miller March 3 West Bromwich Albion W 2-1 A 23,252 Yorke, John March 10 Barnsley W 2-0 A 18,207 Leadbitter, Connolly March 13 Stoke City D 2-2 H 31,358 Whitehead, Murphy March 17 Hull City W 2-0 H 38,488 Evans, John March 31 Cardiff City W 1-0 A 19,353 Wallace April 7 Wolverhampton Wanderers W 2-1 H 40,748 Murphy, Wallace April 9 Southampton W 2-1 A 25,766 Edwards, Leadbitter April 14 Queens Park Rangers W 2-1 H 39,206 Whitehead, Leadbitter April 21 Colchester United L 1-3 A 6,042 Yorke April 27 Burnley W 3-2 H 44,448 Murphy, Connolly, Edwards May 6 Luton Town W 5-0 A 10,260 Murphy 2, Stokes, Wallace, Connolly FA Cup Main article: FA Cup 2006-07 Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Goalscorers Notes 3 6 January 2007 Preston North End Away 0–1 10,318 League Cup Main article: Football League Cup 2006-07 Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Goalscorers Notes 1 22 August 2006 Bury Away 0–2 2,930 References