Watson led the club to three league titles in the 1890’s as the club enjoyed a fruitful start to life in the Football League.
And the anniversary got us thinking about the Black Cats’ most successful managers of all time - so we’ve ranked them in order below according to their win percentage.
We’ve only included permanent managers - so there are no caretakers included - and we’ve capped the list at the top 14, meaning some notable names (such as Sam Allardyce, Gus Poyet and Chris Coleman to name a few) miss out.
Scroll down to see the club’s most successful managers of all time, based solely on win percentage:
We’ve only included permanent managers - so there are no caretakers included - and we’ve capped the list at the top 14, meaning some notable names (such as Sam Allardyce, Gus Poyet and Chris Coleman to name a few) miss out.