Nicholas Summerbee (born 26 August 1971) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, sports television pundit and commentator. He notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, as well as in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

before finishing his career with Non-league Tamworth. He was capped by both the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

and England B sides.

Club career

Swindon Town

Born in

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

, he had trials at

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

, before joining

; where his father, former England international

Mike Summerbee Michael George Summerbee (born 15 December 1942) is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Club career Summerbee was born in Preston, Lancashire, and raised in Ch ...

, had connections. Summerbee played 112 games in seven years for the Robins, scoring six goals and helping them get promoted to the

in 1993 before

paid £1.3million for his services a year later.

Manchester City

Summerbee joined

in 1994. His father Mike had become a household name at the club being part of the successful City team of the late 1960s and early 1970s and also being part of the star trio of

, Francis Lee and Colin Bell. Summerbee joined the team at a time when manager

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this he spent four ...

also brought in

Peter Beagrie Peter Sidney Beagrie (born 28 November 1965) is an English former professional footballer, sports television pundit and commentator. As a player, he was a left-winger in a career that lasted from 1983 to 2006. He played for ten different clubs ...

Uwe Rosler Uwe or UWE may refer to * Uwe (given name) * University of the West of England, Bristol * UML-based web engineering * University Würzburg's Experimental miniaturized satellites for space research UWE-1 and UWE-2 * Uwe - Wreck in Blankenese Blank ...

and

Paul Walsh Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. In his first season Manchester City finished towards the bottom end of the Premiership table. Then chairman Francis Lee replaced manager

with Alan Ball who failed to manage the team to increased success. The team were relegated to the first division. In the summer of 1997 he was offered a trial by the French club

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. In November 1997, Summerbee joined

in a £1million-rated swap deal involving Craig Russell.

Sunderland

Summerbee made his Sunderland debut on 15 November 1997, against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

, as a second-half substitute for Martin Smith. With trademark un-tucked shirt and orange edged boots, Summerbee capped his debut by notching the final goal in a 4–1 victory, scoring with a satisfying low drive. He played out the rest of the season on the right hand side of midfield and enjoyed some of the finest moments of his career after Sunderland won promotion to the Premiership in 1999. During that season, an injured Summerbee enjoyed a well-publicised liaison with TV presenter,

Melanie Sykes Melanie Ann Sykes (born 7 August 1970) is an English television and radio presenter. She is best known for co-hosting '' Today with Des and Mel'' with Des O'Connor and '' Let's Do Lunch'' with Gino D'Acampo. She also co-hosted '' Going Out with ...

. However, it came at a cost. He lost his place in the team following his capital night out with Mel and a 4–1 defeat at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Whilst he returned after one match, Summerbee was substituted in both of his next two games and was relegated to the bench for the next four. He returned triumphantly to the starting eleven by scoring his first goal of the season against Everton. It turned out to be his last as a

player. After this goal, Summerbee was in and out of the side. He finished the season on a high note though, starting in – and starring in – the final three games. Summerbee was left in the wilderness by boss

Peter Reid Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and former player. A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England's brightest midfield tale ...

the following season. He sat on the sidelines for six months until he was given a game for the reserves against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. He was clearly unfit and unhappy, he lashed out at Newcastle United defender Andy Griffin and was immediately substituted before he could be sent off.

Later career

Free transfers and quick stays at the likes of

(where he scored once against Crystal Palace),

and

were followed by a two and a half-year stay at

, which included loan spells at

and

. Summerbee latterly played for

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

side Tamworth, but was released at the end of the 2005–06 season.

International career

On 10 May 1994, Summerbee won an England 'B' cap in a match against Northern Ireland 'B' at Hillsborough.

Personal life

He is the son of

cult hero

. His grandfather, George Summerbee, and great uncle, Gordon Summerbee, had also been professional footballers. Nick is married and has three children.

Media career

Since retirement Summerbee has worked as a Radio co-commentator for BBC Radio Five, as well as being a local pundit for

games. As of September 20th, 2020 Summerbee is a pundit for

beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

Honours

;Sunderland *

Football League Division 1 The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First Div ...

winner: 1998–99 ;Individual *Sunderland Solid Gold XI

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Summerbee, Nicky 1971 births Living people People from Altrincham English footballers Swindon Town F.C. players England B international footballers England under-21 international footballers Manchester City F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Tamworth F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Association football midfielders Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players People educated at Hillcrest Grammar School Footballers from Greater Manchester