Watford FC will always regret letting Sunderland commit heist of the decade: View | OneFootball

Watford signed striker Kevin Phillips from non-league in 1994, but will regret selling the sharp-shooter so cheaply to Sunderland three years later.

Kevin Phillips became one of English football's top marksmen over a 20-year professional career spanning from 1994 to 2014.

Scoring goals wherever he went, his first professional club, Watford, will surely always regret selling the Hitchin-born striker to Sunderland so comparatively cheaply in 1997.

Having been a young forward within the Southampton youth set-up, Phillips joined non-league side Baldock Town upon his Saints release in 1991.

Spending three years with the Reds, playing in multiple positions before eventually impressing as the club's main striker, second-tier side Watford paid a total £30,000 fee to take the youngster to Vicarage Road at the end of 1994.

Despite showing promise in his two-and-a-half-year stint with the Hornets, Phillips struggled with injury issues. Suffering a foot problem in March 1996 that kept him on the sidelines for a year, the forward returned to the first-team fold in the latter stages of the 1996-97 season - although by this time, Watford were in the third tier of English football, having been relegated the year prior.

Watford FC had to watch Kevin Phillips flourish at Sunderland after bargain deal

Despite his troubles with injury, a punt was taken on Phillips by Championship club Sunderland, who agreed a deal that eventually rose to a total of £600,000 to take the forward to Wearside in 1997.

It's fair to say it's a gamble that paid off big time and then some, as the striker - whose partnership with Irishman Niall Quinn went down in Black Cats' folklore - would go on to score goals at a relentless rate for the North East side.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, Watford will have been looking on with aghast at what they'd let go.

Helping his teammates to a top-flight promotion, Phillips took to the higher level exceptionally, seeing him find the net consistently, subsequently resulting in a call-up to the senior England national team, for whom he'd win eight caps in total.

He also picked up individual honours aplenty, such as the Premier League Golden Boot (1999/2000), Premier League Player of the Year (1999/2000) and European Golden Shoe (1999/2000) to go with the Football League First Division Top Goalscorer award he won previously (1997/98).

The striker remained with Sunderland until 2003, giving him a complete Black Cats record of 134 goals over 239 appearances over a blistering six-year stay, before moving on to join Southampton at the age of 30 following Sunderland's top-flight relegation.

Kevin Phillips' career post-Sunderland further proved that Watford struck a poor deal

Phillips' time in the game saw him still playing at the age of 41, making an impact at numerous clubs across the top two tiers in the latter part of his career.

Joining a host of Midlands teams between 2005 and 2014, Phillips showcased his goalscoring instincts at all of them, finding the net often for Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City and finally Leicester City, as he made a beneficial impact - sometimes from the bench - in Championship promotions for the Baggies (2007/08) and the Blues (2008/09), as well as a memorable EFL Cup victory for the latter in 2011.

The striker also turned out for Blackpool and Crystal Palace, scoring a combined total of 287 goals in 665 appearances throughout a career that began at the bottom, but reached the very top.

Phillips proved throughout his time in the game that he was a natural finisher, capable of scoring goals of all types. Good in the air for his size, the striker's clever movement and unerring calmness when opportunities presented themselves saw him develop into a defenders' nightmare.

600k was worth considerably more in 1997 than it is today. However, in hindsight, the Hornets will be kicking themselves that they allowed one of English football's top strikers of the modern era to leave so easily 27 years ago.

Phillips could have achieved with Watford what he went on to with Sunderland, Birmingham City, West Brom, and others, but their league standing at the time - a mid-table club in the division now known as League One - may have pushed them into a cheaper deal than they wanted.

In fairness to the Hornets, they did win back-to-back promotions after Phillips departed Vicarage Road, and they were a Premier League club for the very first time in 1999, but they didn't have a prolific striker in either of those two seasons, with Peter Kennedy (who wasn't even a striker) and Gifton Noel-Williams leading their scoring charts with 13 and 10 goals respectively.

Had Phillips have remained at Watford, he may not have become the striker he ended up being, but with the natural ability he had, there was every chance he could have ended up making the club millions more than they actually did in 1997.

A forward with that ability to decide a match is a very rare and much sought after commodity, and certainly not someone to let go lightly in the way the Vicarage Road outfit did.