Born on this day in 1988 is retired striker and ex-Sunderland player James Vaughan, who is best known for being absolutely terrible during his half-season stint on Wearside.
Up there with other Sunderland legends such as Will Grigg and Danny Graham, Vaughan was born in Birmingham and began his career with Everton in 2002. He was given a professional contract in 2005 and then actually became the youngest ever goal scorer in Premier League history against Crystal Palace at the age of 16 years and 271 days.
He had loan spells at Derby, Leicester and Crystal Palace, where he either didn’t feature much or was entirely average (both of which would have been a godsend at Sunderland). James spent the remainder of his time at Everton being a rotation player, never featuring more than 14 times in any one season. His time wasn’t completely wasted as he earned an FA Cup runners’ up medal. Marred by injuries, Vaughan made the sensible choice to seek first team football on a permanent basis elsewhere.
He ended up in Norwich, which sounds like the end of a tragic story but his injury woes continued and he made just six appearances for the club and failed to score once. Vaughan was sent out on loan to Huddersfield where he actually performed really well, netting 14 times in 37 games. Vaughan did miss a penalty, so at least some normality remained even when he was doing alright! The 'Brummie Baggio' continued his prolific goalscoring as he made the move to Yorkshire permanent in the following season as he found the back of the net 12 times in 26, which also included a hat-trick. The sight of a James Vaughan hat-trick probably froze Hell over and most likely forced the Bournemouth goalkeeper into retirement, but Vaughan's goalscoring prowess admittedly declined as time went on.
The centre-forward was loaned out to Birmingham and despite no goals in 16 games he was given a permanent contract. Birmingham were punished for this decision because he played just one more time for the Blues. He left due to frustration at not playing enough (because he was absolutely rubbish) and departed for Bury, I imagine he was chased out by a crowd of angry bystanders for bringing great shame onto his home city.
Vaughan had a great time at Bury in League One, which let’s be honest was clearly his level. He scored 24 goals in 40 games, helping the team to a narrow survival. These performances not only led to him being named in the League One Team of the Season but also an investigation into every League One goalkeeper for match fixing.
Our brilliant recruitment and stacks upon stacks of cash generously gifted to us by Ellis Short led to us signing Vaughan following our not-so-respectable relegation to the Championship. He got off to a flier, missing penalties against St Johnstone and Celtic in pre-season. When we were given a penalty on the opening day of the season against Derby County, Lewis Grabban made the wise choice to take the ball off him and score from the spot. His ability to score and run rings around defenders was demonstrated by his record of two goals in 27 games for us. He managed to make Will Grigg look like a Sunderland legend, so therefore he should have a statue built in his honour and his birthday should become a bank holiday in Sunderland.
He left in January, the best thing to do for everyone involved and especially for Sunderland fans’ mental health, for the metropolis of Wigan and continued to be terrible at scoring. Six goals in 39 games across two seasons resulted in him being loaned out to Portsmouth (the Wigan hierarchy and management wanting to send him as far away as possible was the most likely reason for his destination) but he did leave Wigan with a League One Winners’ medal.
During his time on the south coast he won the EFL Trophy by sitting on the bench so as to not disturb his teammates who knew how to score and came off the bench as Portsmouth lost in the play-offs to us. 10 games and no goals for Pompey in total.
He then dropped down divisions again, to League Two with Bradford. Bradford turned out to be a good move for him, as he scored 11 in 27 and was named their captain during the covid-curtailed season. Things were going so well for him, so naturally he expressed a desire to leave the club and was then loaned out to Tranmere.
James made this move permanent and in total he scored 25 in 46 for Tranmere and was named in the League Two Team of the Season before announcing his retirement. He currently finds himself in the position of Loans Pathway Manager at Everton, a position he’s held since September 2022, so feel free to blame him for us losing Ellis Simms in January 2023...
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