Niall Quinn on Arsenal, Man City, Sunderland and his biggest regret
Friday 3 March 2017 10:50, UK
Niall Quinn talked Arsenal, Manchester City, Sunderland and his biggest footballing regret on The Fantasy Football Club.
With two of his former sides - Sunderland and City - meeting on Sky Sports on Sunday, Quinn, now a Sky Sports commentator and pundit, looked back on some key moments in his career for the 'In The Picture' feature on the show.
Read on for Quinn's memories of some of the highs and lows of his playing days and beyond...
December 1985
My debut. It came about in curious circumstances. I was set to go on loan to Port Vale on the Thursday, went to the station and got called back because Tony Woodcock got injured in training.
That didn't mean I was definitely going to play but then Paul Mariner got injured in training on Friday, so it was very fortuitous for me.
Live Nissan Super Sunday
I still wasn't told I was playing until about an hour beforehand. I thought I was nowhere near it then got to the ground and was handed the No 9 jersey to play up front alongside Charlie Nicholas against all-conquering Liverpool.
To then find out it was the first live English league game to be televised throughout Europe and to score a goal was Roy of the Rovers stuff.
April 1992
This is a picture of a goal I scored against Leeds. By this stage I had started to blossom as a Manchester City player.
I had to leave Arsenal because this great player came along called Alan Smith, who is a great analyst and commentator at Sky Sports with me now, and I couldn't get a place in the team.
It was a difficult time for me and to make the Irish squad I knew I had to be out playing so in March 1990 I was allowed to transfer to Man City who were in the bottom three. Everyone said it was mad, but two years later we were finishing fifth in the First Division as it was then.
In the 1991 season I got 22 goals and my career lifted off. I always said I learnt how to play at Arsenal but became a player at Manchester City.
May 1999
That's around the time when I was at Sunderland and we got ourselves into the Premier League.
It was a time of my career when my second cruciate injury came along and it didn't look good at all. Both legs were carved open and rebuilt. It was a tricky time but a fella called Kevin Phillips walked in the door and changed everything for the club and we embarked on a great run for a few years. I had six fabulous years there.
We were promoted with lots of games to go because we were so far ahead, but because we got promoted so early we started celebrating a bit early and had events every night of the week.
We played mid-table teams for the rest of the season and could have set a benchmark that nobody would ever beat, but we put the brakes on with four or five games to go having been promoted. Phillips went on the next year to score 30 goals and get the European Golden Boot. Amazing time.
June 2002
The World Cup. I was lucky to still make the team, I really was an old man and was brought along to maybe make an impact with a few minutes to go, and lo and behold late in the game against Germany I knocked one down and Robbie Keane did really well to keep us in the competition with a last-minute goal.
I had a bad back at the time and the photo shows about 10 players jumping on top of me and Robbie, including Richard Dunne who was about three stone overweight at the time - we used to call him 'sugar monster'. My back was in bits for the rest of the tournament.
We got knocked out on penalties and I always have a regret that I didn't take one. I was next up if it had gone to sudden death but players like Kevin Kilbane and David Connolly had gone and missed, and looking back they were young players and I should have gone before them.
It carries a lot of regret for me personally, I felt I let my manager down a bit. It's one of the big regrets from my sporting career.
September 2007
The Heritage Club in Killenard which was designed by Seve Ballesteros and where I was a member. One day Seve came over for a launch and, I don't whether the owner Tommy Keane did this on purpose, but my name was picked out of the hat to play with the great man.
He was enthralling to be around for those few hours, I couldn't play I was that nervous. He used to say things to me like 'You presidente,' because I was at Sunderland. 'That's crazy, you be the manager, get sacked, you make loads of money, the presidente pays all the money'.
He couldn't figure out why I was 'loco' enough to be on the side of the fence of the chairman not the manager. He was a splendid man who had such an aura and presence, showed me how to play shots that I tell people about and they think I am telling fibs. A very special memory.
Watch Sunderland v Manchester City live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 3.30pm on Sunday.
