THREE players to have played for both Sunderland and Southend United!

Anton Ferdinand

Anton Ferdinand followed in his brother’s footsteps Rio by coming through the ranks at West Ham United and was given his debut for the Hammers by Glenn Roeder in 2003. At this point West Ham United found themselves in the Championship attempting to return to the Premier League and almost immediately after making his debut he would become a first team regular in the heart of the defence.

West Ham returned to the Premier League in 2005 and in 2006 they reached the FA Cup final where they faced Liverpool. After an epic game ending 3-3 after extra-time, that included an injury time equaliser by Steven Gerrard during normal time, the game went to penalties where Ferdinand would be the third West Ham player to miss in what turned out to be the decisive spot kick to hand Liverpool the cup.

Having been a regular at Upton Park for five years since making his debut, Ferdinand would move from the London club in the summer of 2008 to Roy Keane’s Sunderland for an undisclosed fee reported to be around £8 million. The England U21 international would be a regular in Sunderland’s first team as Roy Keane lost his job and was replaced by Ricky Sbragia and then Steve Bruce.

Ferdinand found himself further down the pecking order for a first team place under Bruce where the additions of the like of John Mensah meant his first team opportunities were limited. This led to Sunderland accepting an offer from Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 2011 where he’d spend the next two years before a short trip to Turkey with spells at Buraspor and Antalyaspor, and then returning to England with Championship side Reading in 2014.

Ferdinand would struggle to hold down a regular first team place during the next two years with the Royals and signed for Southend United on a free transfer in 2016 and go on to make 65 appearances for the club over two years before he was released in 2018. Last season Ferdinand made the move north to Scotland in the form of St Mirren and was released ahead of the current season.

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Roy O’Donovan

After being released by Coventry City as a 19-year-old, O’Donovan would return to the Republic of Ireland in the form of Cork City in a bid to kick start his professional career. It would be in his two years with the League of Ireland club that his move from a wide midfielder into a striker that saw the player become the league’s top scorer and Cork City clinch the title in his first season. The young striker would also be a regular for the Republic of Ireland U21’s and gain two Republic of Ireland B caps during this time.

His form and goalscoring record of almost a goal every other game caught the attention of Lawrie Sanchez’s Fulham who after agreeing a fee and personal terms were beaten to the 22-year-old’s signature at the last minute by the intervention of Roy Keane and Sunderland.

O’Donovan signed for Sunderland in July 2007 for fee just short of £500,000 which would be a record transfer fee for the League of Ireland. Mainly deployed out wide for Sunderland his career on Wearside never really took off. He would make five starts in total and a further 14 from the bench during his three years with the club, that also included loan spells with Dundee United, Blackpool, Southend United and Hartlepool United.

He would eventually return to where it all began in the West Midlands with a free transfer to Aidy Boothroyd’s Coventry City in the summer of 2010. In an injury impacted three years he would only manage a handful of appearances for the Sky Blues and would also be sent on loan to Hibernian.

Aidy Boothroyd would again buy O’Donovan in 2013, this time for Northampton but this would only last a year before the Irishman moved further afield to Brunei DPMM in the Singapore S.League. Further moves to Singapore and then Australia in the form of Central Coast Mariners, Newcastle Jets and Brisbane Roar who he joined in June of this year on a two-year deal.

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Lee Chapman

Lee Chapman began to make his mark as a 20-year-old in 1980 when he broke into the first team at First Division Stoke City. He would take on the mantle from Garth Crooks to become Stoke City’s top scorer during his first two seasons as a first team regular at the Victoria Ground. This was enough to convince Terry Neill and Arsenal to part with £500,000 in the summer of 1982.

Chapman struggled to replicate his previous form at Highbury and would score only four goals in 23 appearances before they would decide to cut their losses when Alan Durban’s Sunderland offered £200,000 for his services in December 1983. This however would be another move that was not to work out and after four goals in seventeen games he would be on his travels again, this time to South Yorkshire and Howard Wilkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday.

He would prove to be a hit at Hillsborough and go on to score 63 goals in 149 appearances before joining Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in 1988 via a brief spell in France with Chamois Niortais. After two fairly successful seasons with Forest, he would again link up with Howard Wilkinson who was by this time in the hot seat at Leeds United in a deal worth £400,000.

This would be Chapman’s most successful period as a professional where after firing Leeds United back into the First Division in 1990 he would provide 16 goals during the 1991-92 season as Leeds United became last league champions before the creation of the Premier League the following year. Chapman would leave Leeds United in the summer of 1993 when Portsmouth offered £250,000 for the 33-year-old.

Brief spells at West Ham United, Southend United (on loan), Ipswich Town, Leeds United (on loan), Swansea City and Strømsgodset IF in Norway followed over the next three years before retiring from football.

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