Ahead of last season’s Tyne-Wear derby, the Sunderland players were said to have asked for a t-shirt depicting a black cat mutilating a magpie.
Sunderland’s Jan Kirchhoff in action with Newcastle’s Aleksandar Mitrovic
Last season Sunderland players reportedly had to be talked out of wearing a provocative t-shirt insulting bitter rivals Newcastle United.
A new book by football agent Jon Smith titled, The Deal: Inside the World of a Super-Agent, claims that Sunderland players were intent on wearing t-shirts referencing the club’s nicknames by showing a black cat tearing apart a magpie which they would unveil following victory over their rivals at the Stadium of Light last term.
Sunderland did win the match 3-0 but no t-shirts were seen as they were supposedly talked out of the stunt after being made aware of the damaging repercussions that could ensue by one of the player’s agents.
Stadium of Light Sunderland
Smith claims the players, while sporting the insulting t-shirts, were going to run towards the Newcastle fans in an attempt to goad their rivals.
In his book, Smith states, as quoted by the Guardian: “It took that agent six days to talk the Sunderland squad out of it. He told them they would be fined hundreds of thousands of pounds but they didn’t care; there is at least something to be said for players being so impassioned by the cause that a financial punishment did not deter them, especially given the prevailing perception of footballers being driven solely by money.
“Here was the antithesis – they wanted to sacrifice money in a public show of hunger to avoid relegation.”
Ultimately Sunderland did avoid relegation at Newcastle’s expense though the exact reason as to how the players were talked out of wearing the t-shirt remains unclear.
Sunderland’s Billy Jones celebrates with team mates after scoring the second goal for his side
Sunderland have also refuted Smith’s version of events, saying only one (unnamed) player was involved in the stunt and that it wasn’t taken as seriously as the book makes out.
Still, this is not the first time a t-shirt has caused controversy between the sides as back in 1998 then Sunderland midfielder Lee Clarke was seen wearing a t-shirt with the words “sad mackem bastards” on it ahead of Newcastle’s FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.
Sunderland’s Lee Cattermole
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