Former Ireland underage star Seán Thornton on how then Sunderland boss Howard Wilkinson told him to ditch the white boots and blond hair
Premier League career was brief for one-time teen star Thornton but he has no regrets
AMISCHIEF-MAKER had a bit of fun at the expense of retired footballer Seán Thornton with an entry on his Wikipedia page. It was reported that, when he supposedly signed for Athboy Celtic two years ago, “the news spread like wildfire through Athboy and a crowd of around 18 locals lined the streets to welcome the new signing at training”. Fake news, as Thornton knows. Not just because he never signed for that club but, as Thornton jokes, “there isn’t even 18 people in Athboy”.
There was no need to make up a story about Thornton (37) as there are enough true-life tales there already in his 16-year playing career. With his white boots and bleached-blond hair, the teenager made people sit up and take note with a goal, for Sunderland in 2003, in the Premier League against Chelsea.
That goal, in April ’03, would turn out to be the peak. After an 11-game run for Sunderland that season (all defeats), he would not play in the top flight again and he remained uncapped at senior level. At times he looks back to that 2003 game against Chelsea and thinks, what if?
In what was only his fifth Premier League game for Sunderland, he had scored to put the side 1-0 up at home to a Chelsea side that included names like Marcel Desailly, Frank Lampard and John Terry.
Chelsea came back to lead 2-1 and in the closing stages, Thornton took over when his side had a freekick.
“I took it, it went over the wall, the ’keeper didn’t move but it hit the post, and that’s always in my mind: what if that had gone in, if I’d scored the equaliser against Chelsea?” he says.
“It’s better to be remembered for something than for nothing, and not a week goes by that someone doesn’t mention that Chelsea goal, but I do wonder how things would have panned out if that had gone in and we’d drawn the game.”
But there are no regrets for Thornton. “I read stories now about former footballers being depressed, about addictions for ex-players,” says Thornton.
“I read that and think, that’s not me and I feel lucky. I was the same as anyone else, I just happened to kick a ball for a living, I was better than some other players, some players were better than me, that’s life. Being healthy and happy is what’s important.
“I don’t look back with regrets. Could I have played more Premier League games? Obviously, but I could have done a lot worse. I see players who blame other people, managers or whatever, for not achieving what they wanted but I don’t blame anyone. I am grateful.”
After leaving Drogheda United in 2017, Thornton had a spell playing for local side Rathmullen Celtic, but he’s now removed from the game, bar coaching his son’s U-16 side with Drogheda Marsh Crescent.
“That’s my new drug, and I get more pleasure out of coaching those kids, I love it, it’s a different buzz. I am caught up in it, I feel more responsibility on me. That has replaced the buzz I had as a player,” he says.
Dedication
It’s also made him realise how much he owes others.
“I only see it now, the dedication my parents put in to getting me, and my brother Kevin, a career,” he says. “They used to bring us to Dublin three/ four times a week for training and matches. I only realised it when I had my own kids. When I was young, I wasn’t allowed miss training. Now, I get a message into the WhatsApp group from a player’s mother, ‘Johnny can’t make training tonight’. But my parents had me at every single training session.” Tranmere Rovers was Thornton’s starting point and after a run of 13 games in his debut season, he was hot property. Tranmere were sore over how he left, for Sunderland, but success was not instant as in his first season with the Black Cats he was loaned out, unhappily, to Blackpool.
Peter Reid, who had signed Thornton, had departed and Thornton had his work cut out to impress the new manager, Howard Wilkinson.
“Howard had never seen me play but he just said to me at training one day: get rid of the white boots and the blond hair. I was 19 and thinking, who is he to tell me that, I was full of my own ego,” he laughs.
Things changed for Thornton when Wilkinson saw enough of the midfielder in a Monday night reserves game and 24 hours later he was in the first team, in an FA Cup win over Bolton. The following weekend he made his Premier League debut, away to Everton.
He managed 11 league games that term but it was a losing battle: Sunderland were officially relegated with six games to go. There followed two seasons in the Championship and at the end of the 2004/’05 season, Sunderland were promoted back to the Premier League, under Mick McCarthy, but Thornton’s time there was up.
He now regrets how things ended. He was transfer-listed by McCarthy for breaking a curfew late in the season (though from his position it was a minor sin as he was injured at the time) and was then left out of the first-team squad for a pre-season tour of the USA as newly-promoted Sunderland prepared for a return to the Premier League.
He took umbrage at the snub and, before he knew it, had signed for League One side Doncaster Rovers. Now, Thornton sees that McCarthy was setting him a challenge to prove his worth and in hindsight, Thornton feels he was bounced by his then-agent into a move which he didn’t want and which made no sense, when he should have stayed at Sunderland and won back McCarthy’s trust.
“I didn’t have an agent after that, I came to understand the game a bit more,” he says.
He was Doncaster’s record signing at the time (2005) but it was an indifferent spell and instead it was his time at Orient (2007-2010) which bore fruit: “I had my best football at Leyton Orient but the lower you go down, you’re not getting out of those leagues, unless you are a striker banging in 20 goals a season.”
Personal reasons prompted him to leave Orient in 2010 and seek a move close to his family’s base on the Wirral, but he couldn’t shake off injuries and ended up having a year out, before a move to Wales (Aberystwyth Town), in 2011 and the Welsh League was his home for four years. He was aware of the sneers at a former Premier League player slumming it in Wales but he bats those away.
“I loved it in Wales, I wasn’t in the Welsh League thinking, what am I doing here? It was part-time, but I liked it. Football can be like school, where you’re told what to do all the time but when I went to part-time football in Wales, I enjoyed it, I had good people and decent players around me, so I never looked down on it.”
By 2015 it was time to come home, and Thornton had a two-and-a-half-year spell with Drogheda United.
“I have good memories, we were relegated in the first year, then got promoted back, I scored the winning penalty that night,” he says.
“It meant more to me as it was my hometown club, with proper fans, people who’d been following Drogheda United for 40-50 years. Relegation from the Premier League with Sunderland meant nothing to me, I was only 19. But I was devastated to get relegated with Drogheda.”
A falling-out with United’s management team of Pete Mahon and John Gill midway through the 2017 season saw Thornton leave and while he had offers to play for other League of Ireland teams, having played for his hometown club his heart was not in another move, so he was led to local side Rathmullen Celtic, playing with life-long pals. A title win in the North East Football League was a good way to bow out.
Thornton knows stories are whispered about his past, which to him don’t hold up.
“My reputation followed me around. If someone does nine good things but one bad, people focus on the one bad, that’s the world we live in, people love negativity. Once you have that bit of a label, it sticks. I broke a curfew once, but never did it again. I was no angel but I was never sacked or disciplined.
“The reputation follows you, being a party boy. I liked a beer with the lads but I was never in any serious trouble.”
Others assess his career as a waste of the talent he showed in the Premier League at 19 as he was finished with club football in England when he was just 27. And yet he sees himself as satisfied.
“People tell me I finished up early. How do you look at it, early or late? I had a decent career, some people don’t make it to the end of their 20s. I was happy out when I finished with Drogheda United. If you are on the pitch, still healthy, still enjoying what you do, no matter the level, and you have done what you wanted to do, that’s good enough. Being happy is what’s important.”
‘Relegation with Sunderland meant nothing – I was devastated to get relegated with Drogheda’