Tuesday, July 15, 1997

Watford sold Kevin Phillips to Sunderland for a fee rising to £600,000.

Having been recruited from Baldock Town by Glenn Roeder, Phillips' Watford career had to navigate both long periods out with injury and occasional losses of confidence.

In between these, Phillips displayed the goalscoring instincts that would serve him well at the Stadium of Light - during which spell he was capped by England - and for more than a decade with a number of different clubs.

His sale to Sunderland, during the period where out-of-contract players still commanded a fee, was provoked by some canny negotiating by Graham Taylor, who had been about to lose him to Ipswich Town for a smaller return.

Reproduced by kind permission of Matt Rowson from his book, Watford FC On This Day