26th August – Nicky Summerbee

Nicky Summerbee comes from a long line of professional footballers and just like his dad, Mike, will be loving how Manchester City are getting on at the moment.

The midfielder now does a lot of radio work and is regularly a pundit for Manchester City games and will be forever liked by those at the club as his dad is a cult hero there.

Summerbee didn’t have the easiest starts to his career and had trials at clubs like Manchester United, Leicester City and Norwich City before finally convincing Swindon Town that he was good enough. After signing for them in 1989 he would go on to make 112 league appearances for the club, scoring six goals and being an important member of the squad that got promoted to the Premier League in 1993.

His form convinced Manchester City to pay £1.3 million for his services and he proudly followed in his father’s footsteps. In his first season at the club they were struggling and even with Alan Ball replacing Brian Horton as manager nothing could change their fortunes. Unfortunately this ended in the club getting relegated from the Premier League and led to rumours of Summerbee leaving the club. In the summer of 1997 it looked as though he would be moving on after a trial with French side Bordeaux, however a move never materialised.

After 131 games for City, Summerbee did leave for Sunderland in November 1997. He made an instant impact on his debut against Portsmouth by scoring the final goal in a 4-1 win after coming on as a substitute. He continued his good form and was a regular in the side as he once again helped his side gain promotion from Division One and into the Premier League.

However, injuries and some argue things in his personal life contributed to him not having as much of an impact as he would have liked in the next few seasons for Sunderland. Summerbee was left in the wilderness by manager Peter Reid as the club began to thrive and an incident in a reserve match against Newcastle United put an end to his career at Sunderland.

Upon leaving Sunderland, he joined Bolton Wanderers, however this only lasted nine games, with him managing to score one goal against Crystal Palace. But he struggled to settle and more short term spells at Leicester City and Nottingham Forest followed. He finally found a place to call home again when he joined Bradford City in 2003.

He stayed with the club for two and a half years but towards the end his playing time was becoming limited and he had loan spells at Swindon Town and Tranmere Rovers. His final move was to Tamworth where he played four league games before retiring.

The final word can go to former Swindon Town manager Andy King. “I spoke about players performing well. Nicky Summerbee gave us much greater shape, and put some good balls into the box. The shape was the key thing.”

30th March – Emerson Thome

Some say that Brazilians do not settle well in England but there are a few that have succeeded and showed their true potential.

One player that did not quite do this was Emerson Thome but unfortunately it was not his fault and it was circumstances out of his control that stopped him being one of the best centre backs in the league. He is 42 today and he first came to England in the 1997-98 season joining Sheffield Wednesday and he quickly became a fan favourite and was given the nickname ‘The Wall’ due to his size and commitment to not conceding goals. One fan said: “I met him at Hillsborough once and shook his hand, he nearly crushed every bone in my hand, he was a monster of a bloke, but was really friendly and polite. On the pitch he and Des Walker formed a great partnership.”

Unfortunately The Owls began to struggle in the Premier League and as relegation was getting closer they needed to get rid of some of their highest earners and those that could bring them in a decent transfer fee. Thome was one of these players and Chelsea paid £2.7 million for the centre back.

His time at Chelsea was when his career in England started to unravel and he could not become the player everyone had hoped. He only stayed at Stamford Bridge for nine months as he could not break the partnership up of experienced defenders Marcel Desailly and Frank Leboeuf.

Surprisingly Chelsea still made a profit on him and this just shows that he was still very highly rated and his potential was wasted at Chelsea. He signed for Sunderland for around £4 million and because of a clause in his contract he could not make as much of an impact as he hoped. Towards the end of the 2002-03 season as the club were heading towards relegation they could not play Thome as he was closing in on his 50th game which meant Sunderland had to pay Chelsea a considerable sum of money.

So he left the club in the summer and joined Bolton Wanderers helping them to 8th in the table and the final of the League Cup but he did not do enough to earn a new contract and left for Wigan Athletic who he helped gain promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history. However he did not play much in the Premier League and went out on loan to Derby County.

When he returned to Wigan he was released from his contract and ended his career at Japanese side Vissel Kobe. Since retiring he became a scout and is working for Everton as their chief scout in Portugal.

The last word can go to Peter Reid who signed him for Sunderland highlighting his talents. “Emerson is a terrific acquisition for the club. He’s a very strong defender, has great pace and is good in the air.”