​The Gaffers, Sunderland AFC’s Managers Through The Decades, is Rob Mason’s latest title and is available for pre-order now. Pocket-sized and published by local firm twocan, who’ve collaborated with Rob on several projects before, it fills a gap on any Sunderland supporter’s bookshelf — think The Absolute Record: The Players, but for managers. Every Sunderland boss, whether full-time or just holding the reigns as a caretaker, is covered with a concise rundown of their career, their tenure at the club, and the statistics that formed their Wearside record. As official club historian and someone who has met scores of the people featured, Rob is able to sum the gaffers up better than anybody else, and he very graciously allowed me a sneak peek while he was pulling everything together.
Naturally, I started with my own first boss, Denis Smith, but the pages that intrigued me most were those covering the temporary hot-seat dwellers — the men who stepped in while Sunderland regrouped after another departure and searched for a longer-term replacement. Caretakers, especially those who didn’t oversee any competitive fixtures, are sometimes little more than footnotes in club history, yet they receive fair billing here, and readers will come away with a clearer understanding of these less heralded figures.
Fred Dale, for instance, born in Monkwearmouth before it officially became part of the borough of Sunderland, but still very much a local lad, was an early stalwart. Not only did he captain the Lads before they were elected to the Football League, but he would later serve as a scout for Bob Kyle, who had been selected ahead of him when the pair both applied to be named Alex Mackie’s permanent replacement in 1905. Dale took charge of fifteen competitive games, winning seven. At that moment he was only the second person ever to be appointed caretaker — Alex Watson had been the first, overseeing Sunderland for three and a half months in 1899.
Watson, originally from Cumbria, moved to the town as a child when his father found work in a coal mine and, tragically, he passed away in Sunderland as well. His death on this day in 1931 was a shock, bringing to an end a life devoted to the local community and, in particular, to the growth of the game on Wearside. A teacher at Thomas Street School, where club founder James Allan had also worked, Watson became secretary of Wearmouth AFC in 1883 — a team formed by a group of teaching colleagues who had been marginalised at Sunderland due to the influx of players from other backgrounds. He later moved to the opposite end of the administrative spectrum, working on affairs at Roker Park when Bob Campbell’s departure was announced, staying on once Alex Mackie arrived after the summer and continuing as financial secretary. He was suspended from the role in late 1904, a notable moment in the pre-Football League era that underscores the complexities of early club administration and succession planning. The book captures these episodes with care, giving readers a broader sense of the people who shaped Sunderland’s managerial lineage.
This volume delves into each caretaker’s brief tenure and the wider context in which they operated, offering readers a richer appreciation of their contributions, however temporary their role may have been. By presenting these stories with nuance and respect, Rob Mason’s The Gaffers ensures that every chapter of Sunderland’s managerial history receives its due consideration, from the long-serving bosses who left lasting legacies to the interim figures who steadied the ship in uncertain times. The result is a compact, must-have reference for any supporter looking to understand the evolution of Sunderland AFC’s management through the decades.