Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has been having to deal with playing Championship matches without having a natural number nine available to him.

The Black Cats boss has been without Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms in recent weeks and that has forced him to play the likes of Elliot Embleton, Amad Diallo, and Alex Pritchard in the forward positions.

Stewart has been a talisman since arriving at the Stadium of Light in 2021 and his absence has been felt as the club have failed to score in three of the six matches played since his injury.

The Scotland international has scored 34 goals in 72 competitive games for the Black Cats since joining from Ross County, including five goals in seven Championship outings this season.

He has been a phenomenal signing in a position in which the club have not always had the best of luck, or judgement, with in years gone by.

One striker who Sunderland had a nightmare with was Norweigan international Tore Andre Flo, who arrived from Glasgow Rangers in the summer of 2002.

The Black Cats reportedly paid a fee of £6.75m to sign the centre-forward and then-manager Peter Reid hailed the attacker's ability, saying: "Tore has many qualities I look for in a striker. He has the ability to create chances, is good in the air and has excellent finishing skills."

He arrived after scoring 22 goals in 46 matches for the Gers and had scored 50 goals in 162 games for Chelsea prior to moving to Scotland.

Flo was unable to replicate his goalscoring form from his previous clubs as he struggled badly on the pitch in the Premier League, scoring four goals in 29 appearances during the 2002/03 campaign.

The striker had found the back of the net every 2.09 and 3.24 games for Rangers and Chelsea respectively before signing for Sunderland and you could forgive supporters for expecting a similar conversation rate from him on Wearside.

Instead, he scored once every 7.25 matches for the Black Cats and the team ended up finishing bottom of the English top-flight with 19 points.

Sunderland needed to reduce their wage bill following their relegation to the Championship and Flo was allowed to depart on a cut-price deal to Serie A side Siena in the summer of 2003.

The Chronicle reported that he left for a fee that was believed to be slightly less than £1m, which meant that the club lost at least £4.5m on Flo in the space of a year.

Reid, therefore, had a nightmare with the signing of the Norway international as he failed to produce consistent quality on the pitch in the Premier League and left for significantly less than what he was brought in for from Rangers.