Times Sport
Quinn can leave Sunderland with his head held high
8:00am Tuesday 21st February 2012
IN football, results and performances on the pitch are ultimately what players, managers, chairman or the club's owner are judged on.
Actions off the field, however, can often determine how strong an individual's connection is with the supporters.
Niall Quinn's achievements and attitude during a six-year playing spell on Wearside ensured he retired in 2002 with hero status. The last five-and-a-half years in the boardroom, transforming the ailing club's Premier League fortunes, have taken his stock to new levels.
He had already transformed his beloved Sunderland's outlook in the space of a few months after successfully leading the Drumaville Consortium's takeover through the summer of 2006.
And by the time Sunderland had left Cardiff City with all three points in April 2007 to heighten the promotion charge in his first season at the helm, Quinn made a decision that summed up his character. It summed up why he is so loved by Sunderland fans.
Just days after embarking on one of the chairman's roadshows which became a regular occurrence under his watch, he decided to intervene when 80 supporters had been told they would not be able to board a flight from Bristol to Newcastle.
The same supporters had just been chanting Quinn's name, so he decided to take it upon himself to pay around £8,000 for a fleet of taxis to take the stranded fans back to the North-East.
His act of kindness was rewarded with increased ticket sales the following weekend for the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers, as Sunderland took another step towards fulfilling the first stage of Quinn's dream: A return to the Premier League.
When he returned to Sunderland to sit in the boardroom, it was never intended to be a long-term role. When he was presented in front of the fans as a guest of outgoing chairman Bob Murray in May 2006, he had short-term aspirations to make the club an established top-flight force.
The five-year plan he regularly spoke of did run slightly over, but his second spell has reached an end with his reputation still firmly intact.
There will be those who choose to remember the fleet of taxis. There will also be those who recall the way he raised £450,000 for Sunderland Royal Hospital as part of a £1m charity push which also helped Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Ireland, and Goal, a charity street in Calcutta.
Confirmation that he had passed the seven-figure mark arrived on the same afternoon he had told of his decision to finally bring an end to a playing career that had taken him to Manchester City, Sunderland and two World Cups after starting his career at Arsenal.
DESPITE the memories of winning a League Cup medal with the Gunners, it was Sunderland he once claimed that "really got under his skin".
At first it never looked like it would end that way. After Peter Reid made him Sunderland's record signing when he moved for £1.3m from Manchester City in 1996, he spent the majority of the season out injured with a cruciate ligament injury.
That was Sunderland's final season at Roker Park and it ended in the ignominy of relegation. Then two games in to the first season outside the Premier League, it didn't seem things would improve for Quinn.
In the second home game of the season, he missed a glaring opportunity when he was faced with just the goalkeeper to beat. Norwich went on to win that afternoon and the boos and jeers circled.
But then Sunderland went on a 13-match unbeaten run, ended in the play-offs only to be defeated on penalties by Charlton in a thrilling Wembley final. Promotion did arrive the following year.
Among his 69 goals in his 183 appearances for Sunderland were two vital goals in back-to-back wins at St James' Park, when they often looked capable of claiming a UEFA Cup place.
He scored the winner against Newcastle United in November 2000, which arrived a year after his equaliser in the win which effectively got Ruud Gullit the sack.
Such heroics in front of goal - largely as a deadly attacking double act alongside Kevin Phillips - and his general approach to life in the North-East, where he lived in Bishop Middleham, combined to draw huge affection from the fans.
And it was his relationship with the fans and Reid which led to his decision to battle on with a long-standing back problem for a few further months, despite toying with the idea of retirement in the immediate aftermath of the 2002 World Cup with Ireland.
"There was nothing gimmicky about our relationship, we just had an understanding," said Quinn when he retired, aged 36, and his last appearance was against West Ham in the October of that World Cup year.
"As soon as they knew I was not just a southerner coming up here to take all their money off them they took to me and I thank them for that. I think it might have been when I was able to criticise Margaret Thatcher in print - that helped."
HE had realised during his playing days with the club that Sunderland were the 'sleeping giant' Peter Reid had portrayed them to be. So, when he realised Murray had taken the club as far as he could, Quinn intervened in 2006.
After pulling together the Drumaville Consortium, he initially struggled. After failing to bring in the manager he wanted, he took over the managerial reins himself. After the third of six defeats, he soon realised there was more to turning the fortunes around than he thought.
He said: "I don't think the fans want to moan and groan. I don't think they're moaning and groaning for the sake of it, or because it's a habit that's crept into their lives.
"We've got an extra thing there - a gremlin to deal with, which is a lack of confidence throughout the club. We have to get rid of that gremlin."
After losing a Carling Cup tie at Bury, he soon emerged from the tunnel to inform everyone he was closing in on a world class name to lead the club in to the next chapter. Soon after, Roy Keane took over.
With that appointment brought immediate belief. Keane orchestrated the transformation from relegation candidates to title winners in his first season in charge, with the help of Drumaville's backing.
It was also an appointment that took the profile of the club on to an international stage. And, even though Keane eventually departed over a breakdown in his relationship with Short a few years later, Quinn was also integral in attracting both Steve Bruce and Martin O'Neill to Wearside.
He will be remembered as the man behind the record-breaking deals for Craig Gordon, Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan. He was also a key mover in the £20m-plus sales of Jordan Henderson and Bent.
Quinn's presence will be sadly missed, but the memories of his work and achievements during two separate spells at Sunderland will hang around Wearside forever. And, in helping to bring in O'Neill, one of his last bits of business could turn out to be his best.