Plant the seeds; nurture them; watch them blossom. It’s a pretty basic gardening philosophy, but transfer it to football and therein lies the huge success of the player development programme at Sunderland in the first decade of this century.

The talent spotting and coaching prowess of manager Michael Mulhern benefitted not only the Black Cats but also England – no fewer than eight players from the club went on to become Lionesses, between them winning well over 600 international caps.

Three of the eight – Jill Scott, Steph Houghton and Carly Telford – made their first team debuts as 14-year-olds before 16 became the youngest age at which teenagers were allowed to play senior football. 

So it’s no surprise to learn that the other five – Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, Lucy Staniforth, Jordan Nobbs and Beth Mead – were each in the first team at 16.

Sunderland Ladies played in the Northern Division of the Women’s National League in 1991-92, however the Sunderland side we know today are an amalgam of that club and their Tyneside rivals Cowgate Kestrels, who also featured in that inaugural season. 

Mulhern joined the club in 1999 – when they were known as Blyth Spartans Kestrels – on the recommendation of former England manager Ted Copeland, who at the time was the Director of Sport at the pioneering East Durham College. The college was home to the first ‘women’s football academy’ in the country and attracted talented players aged 16-18 from across England and Scotland, as well as the local area.

“Ted wanted me as manager,” recalls Mulhern, “but the brief was strict – promotion from the (FA) Northern Division to the top flight in my first season was the demand.

“So I was under pressure, but we had the pick of the East Durham College players and in the end we won the Division by a good distance.”

The name of the club was changed to Sunderland that summer of 2000 after the Black Cats had stepped in and backed Mulhern’s team financially.

A difficult second campaign in the top flight ended in relegation, in 2002 – but that led to the start of the player development drive that eventually lifted the club to National Division prominence.

Mulhern says: “East Durham College used to send a lot of girls to American colleges on football scholarships, and in that relegation season we lost 14 players from our first team squad. So the decision was made to grow our own.

“I took over the running of the club’s girls’ Academy and added a couple of age group teams so that we had Under-10s, Under-12s, Under-14’s and Under-16s.

“The idea was to plant the seeds and, although it was going to take time for them to grow, they’d come through – and that’s exactly what happened.

“Jordan Nobbs was in that first Under-10 team, Steph Houghton was already at the club and youngsters like Jill Scott and Carly Telford were brought in early on.

“These and the best of the other girls were soon in the first team – they were better than some of the more established players and they had more potential.

“We held psychology sessions, talking about the power of the mind, and that helped them build confidence in themselves and each other. So even as young teenagers they were mentally strong.

“I was sure a number of them would eventually play for England, and they definitely played a big part in establishing Sunderland as a high achieving football team.”

The Black Cats, after reaching the 2008-09 FA Cup final – losing to Arsenal – and also that season winning promotion to the top flight from the Northern Division, were unable two years later to enter the FA Women’s Super League in its inaugural campaign.

But in the final three years of Mulhern’s tenure they won the newly constituted Premier League in each season, completing a League and League Cup double in 2011-12 and gaining promotion to the Championship in 2013-14.

It was at that point that Mulhern left the club, though not for footballing reasons. Sunderland were set to become a full-time professional outfit and, says the manager, “I had four and a half years to serve in the police force before retiring, and I just couldn’t step away from that.”

Eight years after his departure, four of the players developed by Mulhern through their early careers were part of the England squad which triumphed in the EURO 2022 finals, winning gold in the Wembley final against Germany.

Lucy Bronze and Demi Stokes were both by then at Manchester City, while Jill Scott was with Aston Villa and Beth Mead – the tournament’s Golden Boot winner and named Player of the Tournament – was starring for Arsenal.

Talking about Mulhern’s influence on her career, Mead said: “He taught me a lot of things at a young age. He put a lot of faith in me when I was just 16 and has been a massive building block in my career.” 

“He put me in at the deep end and played me against top players and top teams. A lot of England players have come through under Mick, so we probably owe a lot to him because he gave us a chance at such a young age.” 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Jan Kruger for The FA/The FA via Getty Images and The FA/Action Images.