Robert Kyle (Manager)

1 August 1905 to (15 March 1928) / 5 May 1928

 Above is Kyle standing in front of what I think is the Clock Stand circa 1912. Its a quite marvellous image of the man who led Sunderland AFC longer than any other man in history.

The image is scanned in such detail that you can make out the stripes on his trousers.

Bob Kyle is the club’s longest serving manager having been in charge for 19 seasons and 758 league games, over 250 more games than the club’s next longest serving manager (Alan Brown). Kyle arrived at Sunderland from the Belfast Distillery Club, who he had played for and then managed since June 1897, for the start of the 1905/06 campaign, at a time when Sunderland was in a certain amount of disarray.

The 1903/04 and 1904/05 seasons, for Sunderland, had been dogged by controversy. The McCombie affair in which Sunderland were judged to have broken wage rules led to Directors and the then Manager being banned. As a direct result of this in October 1904 new Directors took over the club, including “Mr. Sunderland”, Fred Taylor, who would serve the club for decades. Furthermore the then Secretary Manager Alex Mackie left at the end of the 1904/05 season to take up the Secretary Manager position with Middlesbrough. On advertising the post Sunderland were inundated with 70 applications for the job. The then Caretaker, Fred Dale, was widely tipped to take over.

However Kyle had a growing reputation in British football having won three Irish League titles, two Irish Cups, one City Cup, three County Antrim Shields and one Belfast Charity Cup with Distillery. Also his Belfast team had defeated Sunderland in a 1903/04 friendly match adding to his reputation on Wearside. He took up his position at Roker Park in June 1905.

Kyle’s first 3 seasons in charge were relatively poor as he dismantled the previous Sunderland squad and rebuilt his own, astutely.  His first notable signing was Tommy Tait. A host of other quality players then followed. These included Harry Low, the legendary LR Roose, George Holley and Charlie Thomson. Frank Cuggy followed in 1909 but the final piece in Kyle’s jigsaw was the capture of the heroic figure of Charlie Buchan.

In the 16 seasons that followed the first three, Sunderland were league champions, runners up, third three times and were out of the top 10 on only 3 occasions. Kyle of course led Sunderland to the now legendary 9 v 1 triumph over arch rivals Newcastle United at St James Park.

The official statistical records show that Kyle topped the 750 mark in league games; however controversy surrounds his eventual demise. The last 12 games of the 1927/28 season were said to have been overseen by the Directors, with Kyle unofficially departing Roker on 15 March 1928.  With Kyle went Billy Williams, who had been Sunderland’s trainer since 1897. In 35 seasons since joining the league in 1890 Sunderland AFC had employed a mere 4 managers.