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Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Times
Kevin Phillips: No one knew me in Sunderland — then I was on dentist's wall
O ver the clatter of steel and the low drum of drills, Kevin Phillips is watching the unique fizz of work men on a tight deadline outside a football ground, one in which he earned his own superhero nickname. The Stadium of Light is a hive of activity just over 48 hours before Premier League football returns to the ground after an eight-year absence. The sense of rebirth is further magnified by the new Keel Crossing, a bridge that will lead from the stadium across the River Wear to the city of Sunderland on its completion next month. It evokes a memory from 28 years ago for Phillips, back to the first time he drove — on his own — to a stadium that was desperately being finished back then, for its first ever match, a friendly with Ajax. He was a spectator for the night, having just signed from Watford, but he was a player for the first league game at the stadium against Manchester City on August 15, 1997.
Times
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The Michelin star chef who is raising the game at Sunderland
'I'll be back in 20 seconds, I need to get changed,' says Tommy Banks before he charges through double doors in the Jimmy Montgomery Stand at the Stadium of Light, and slides across an empty dance floor — his white Adidas trainers having already been discarded. He is wearing a T-shirt and black jeans before the transformation takes place into his cooking attire and this Sunderland-supporting TV chef, now plotting award-winning food at the stadium, will reveal much more of a fondness for Super Kev than Superman. There are curious ways for that lifelong bond of heartache, pain and the occasional moment of out-of-this-world exhilaration to start between supporter and club, and York-born Banks, Britain's youngest-ever winner of a coveted Michelin star, has a pretty unique reason for Sunderland being his footballing love. 'My next door neighbour was Bob Murray's butcher,' he says. 'Bob was the Sunderland chairman and he would give tickets to my neighbour. My neighbour took us up to my first game in 2000. It was a League Cup tie on a Tuesday night, Sunderland versus Man United. 'I was in the top-right corner, a noisy part of the stadium. It was great, for me as a ten-year-old. My framing point was that Man United had won the Treble, Dwight Yorke got sent off, Julio Arca scored in the first half and then Kevin Phillips scored the winner. 'I just remember the ground was rocking and everyone was singing 'Sunderland til I die'. I loved it. I'd never seen anything like it. It was electric and, yeah, I was hooked.' Home was York, where Banks, who is now 36, would begin working at The Black Swan at Oldstead, from where he would earn that Michelin star. 'At school, me and my mate were the only two Sunderland fans,' he adds. 'Everyone else was mainly Leeds or there was the odd Man United fan and some liked York City. 'What was it like being a Sunderland fan? Up and down! I remember getting really upset when Chris Makin was sold to Ipswich Town. My favourite-ever kit was 2002 and it was almost like Inter Milan colours, dark blue and light blue stripes. I think the new Hummel away kit is the nicest kit we've had since. 'When I started working after I left school I didn't come up [to matches] as much because as a chef I was always working weekends. To my whole brigade's annoyance, I would always stream every match. But then it was rubbish going down to League One, just rubbish.' It was not rubbish in 2013, when Banks, now a regular on BBC's Great British Menu and Family Cooking Showdown, picked up that first Michelin star. He was at the two games that feel like they have sent electric currents through Wearside, the last-gasp play-off wins against Coventry City and Sheffield United. It raises the question of which was better, getting his two Michelin star or either winning goal at the Stadium of Light or Wembley? 'You know what, it's difficult because it's not the same emotion, is it?' he says. 'When a goal goes in, it's pure ecstasy. The Coventry game at the Stadium of Light was like nothing I'd ever seen. You saw the atmosphere, it was just nuts. 'The game was on a knife-edge. I'd lost my voice the next day and I had meetings and I went, 'I'm really sorry, I'm a Sunderland fan', and they were all going, 'Good on ya!'. 'You don't get that moment with a Michelin star. It's more a slow burner. It's quite hard to compare. At the time [of his first one], they just published the book and you would have to try and find it on a PDF online, which was quite anticlimactic. 'Now they do a big ceremony and you get invited to go on stage, but I never got that because the second time I won a Michelin star for my second restaurant was during Covid so it was on Zoom. I've never actually experienced that, going on stage to this great applause.' So you're trying to say the Sunderland goals are better? 'Yeah, but don't write that the Sunderland goals were better than a Michelin star! 'The thing is for me with those two goals [Dan Ballard in minute 32 of extra time against Coventry and Tommy Watson in minute five of added time at Wembley] we were at the stage where we were really involved with the club for what we are going to do. We had already decided we were going to do 'Banks on the Wear.' ' As the club returns to the Premier League for the first time in nine seasons, in the kitchen on every match day at Sunderland's home ground will be a chef with two Michelin stars. That feels pretty unique. 'When the guys I knew at [hospitality company] Delaware said, 'We might be doing a deal at Sunderland, you're a fan, do you want to be involved?', I was like 'absa bloody lutely' but you never know if these things will come off. 'I was with David Bruce [Sunderland's chief business officer] for the West Brom game and he told me his vision of what they are trying to do and I was like, 'Wow!' I really like this guy and I feel the club is in good hands and going in a good direction. 'You wouldn't know this unless you're a chef, but there is a league table for the boardroom food. There is a league table for the best restaurant. I want to win both of them.' He will walk through that restaurant at the Stadium of Light with about 50 Sunderland fans after our chat. He will talk through his love of the club. There will be a refurb of the Black Cats Bar, called 'Tommy's Pie Shop' as well as the star of the show, his restaurant, Banks on the Wear, that will include a directors' box seat at the game for those enjoying his food. 'It's a huge honour,' he says. 'The pressure I feel is that this has not been done before, it's a very new thing. We will be in from first thing in the morning and there will be a team of ten of us. 'I want it to be the best restaurant in the Premier League. It's trail-blazing. It will be fever pitch by the time that first game of the season against West Ham comes around. It'll be off the charts.' Places are available seasonally and match-to-match in Banks on the Wear, visit to book a table for 2025-26. Premier LeagueAugust 16, 3pm
Times
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The Michelin Star-winning chef who is raising the game at Sunderland
'I'll be back in 20 seconds, I need to get changed,' says Tommy Banks before he charges through double doors in the Jimmy Montgomery Stand at the Stadium of Light, and slides across an empty dance floor — his white Adidas trainers having already been discarded. He is wearing a T-shirt and black jeans before the transformation takes place into his cooking attire and this Sunderland-supporting TV chef, now plotting award-winning food at the stadium, will reveal much more of a fondness for Super Kev than Superman. There are curious ways for that lifelong bond of heartache, pain and the occasional moment of out-of-this-world exhilaration to start between supporter and club, and York-born Banks, Britain's youngest-ever winner of a coveted Michelin Star, has a pretty unique reason for Sunderland being his footballing love. 'My next door neighbour was Bob Murray's butcher,' he says. 'Bob was the Sunderland chairman and he would give tickets to my neighbour. My neighbour took us up to my first game in 2000. It was a League Cup tie on a Tuesday night, Sunderland versus Man United. 'I was in the top right corner, a noisy part of the stadium. It was great, for me as a ten-year-old. My framing point was that Man United had won the treble, Dwight Yorke got sent off, Julio Arca scored in the first half and then Kevin Phillips scored the winner. I just remember the ground was rocking and everyone was singing 'Sunderland til I die'. I loved it. I'd never seen anything like it. It was electric and, yeah, I was hooked.' Home was York, where Banks, who is now 36, would begin working at The Black Swan at Oldstead, from where he would win that Michelin Star. 'At school, me and my mate were the only two Sunderland fans,' he adds. 'Everyone else was mainly Leeds or there was the odd Man United fan and some liked York City. 'What was it like being a Sunderland fan? Up and down! I remember getting really upset when Chris Makin was sold to Ipswich Town. My favourite-ever kit was 2002 and it was almost like Inter Milan colours, dark blue and light blue stripes. I think the new Hummel away kit (now) is the nicest kit we've had since. 'When I started working after I left school I didn't come up (to matches) as much because as a chef I was always working weekends. To my whole brigade's annoyance, I would always stream every match. 'But then it was rubbish going down to League One, just rubbish.' It was not rubbish in 2013, when Banks, now a regular on BBC's Great British Menu and Family Cooking Showdown, picked up that first Michelin Star. He was at the two games that feel like they have sent electric currents through Wearside, the last-gasp play-off wins against Coventry and Sheffield United. It raises the question of which was better, getting either of his two Michelin Stars, or either winning goal at the Stadium of Light or Wembley. 'You know what, it's difficult because it's not the same emotion, is it?' he answers. 'When a goal goes in, it's pure ecstasy. The Coventry game at the Stadium of Light was like nothing I'd ever seen. You saw the atmosphere, it was just nuts. The game was on a knife-edge. I'd lost my voice the next day and I had meetings and I went, 'I'm really sorry, I'm a Sunderland fan', and they were all going, 'Good on ya!'. 'You don't get that moment with a Michelin Star. It's more a slow burner. It's quite hard to compare. 'At the time [of his first one], they just published the book and you would have to try and find it on a PDF online, which was quite anticlimactic. 'Now they do a big ceremony and you get invited to go on stage, but I never got that because the second time I won a Michelin Star for my second restaurant was during Covid so it was on Zoom. I've never actually experienced that, going on stage to this great applause.' So you're trying to say the Sunderland goals are better? 'Yeah, but don't write that the Sunderland goals were better than a Michelin Star!' Okay then. 'The thing is for me with those two goals [Dan Ballard in minute 32 of extra-time and Tommy Watson in minute five of injury-time] we were at the stage [him as chef Tommy and not fan] where we were really involved with the club for what we are going to do. We had already decided we were going to do 'Banks on the Wear'.' And here we come to the reason for the dance floor sliding and the energetic Superman (or Kev) changing into the work clothes that he and his team will bring to the Stadium of Light every matchday, as the club returns to the Premier League for the first time in nine seasons. In the kitchen on every matchday at Sunderland's home ground will be a chef with two Michelin stars. That feels pretty unique. 'When the guys I knew at [hospitality company] Delaware said, 'We might be doing a deal at Sunderland, you're a fan, do you want to be involved?', I was like 'absa bloody lutely' but you never know if these things will come off. 'I was with David Bruce [Sunderland's chief business officer] for the West Brom game and he told me his vision of what they are trying to do and I was like, 'Wow!' I really like this guy and I feel the club is in good hands and going in a good direction. 'You wouldn't know this unless you're a chef, but there is a league table for the boardroom food. There is a league table for the best restaurant. I want to win both of them.' He will walk through that restaurant at the Stadium of Light with about 50 Sunderland fans after our chat. He will talk through his love of the club. There will be a refurb of the Black Cats Bar, called 'Tommy's Pie Shop' as well as the star of the show, his restaurant, 'Banks on the Wear' that will include a directors' box seat at the game for those dining on his food. 'It's a huge honour,' he says. 'The pressure I feel is that this has not been done before, it's a very new thing. We will be in from first thing in the morning and there will be a team of ten of us. 'I want it to be the best restaurant in the Premier League. It's trail-blazing. It will be fever pitch by the time that first game of the season against West Ham comes around. It'll be off the charts.' Sunderland v West Ham Premier League August 16, 3pm
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Refreshing' signings but Sunderland need a 'proven quality' striker
Former Sunderland forward Martin Smith believes "everything seems to be on the right path" before the club's return to the Premier League next month, with the Black Cats' transfer window spending already hitting £100m."The intent of the signings has been refreshing compared with years gone by," Smith told BBC Radio Newcastle's Simon Pryde. "We are doing it early and we are spending a lot of money."I'm sure the players that are coming in have a bit of realism about them that this isn't going to be easy, but they are coming to stay up and be Premier League players - there is no doubt about that."The lads that got to the Premier League with us, through the Championship, there is no way they are going to want to give up their spot in this league easily."Everything about the club seems to be on the right path, so there is no reason why it can't translate on the pitch as well."On whether Sunderland should be looking at signing a 15-goal-per-season striker, Smith added: "The hardest thing about the Premier League is creating chances and being clinical with them. You're not going to get as many as you did in the Championship."Have we got someone like Kevin Phillips at the minute? Someone who can step into the Premier League and score that many goals? Probably not."I wouldn't be massively concerned if Eliezer Mayenda and Wilson Isidor were leading the line, though, because you don't know how players are going to step up. You see lads going into the Premier League and taking it by storm, but I would still like to see someone with a bit more proven quality."Listen to the full conversation on BBC Sounds
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
🎧 Who are the top 25 Saints of the last 25 years?
"Just to tease you all, I will tell you there are players like Kevin Phillips, Stern John, Michael Svensson that don't make my 25."Who are the best Saints players of the past quarter of a century?BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore and Tom Murray are joined by former Southampton midfielder Jo Tessem to discuss who makes their top 25 list for a Goin' Home to the full episode and more on BBC Sounds.
