Former Sunderland manager Peter Reid has revealed the boardroom battle which ultimately led to his sacking.
Reid twice led the club to promotion to the Premier League and secured back-to-back seventh-placed finishes in 2000 and 2001 - the Black Cats' highest league placings since the mid-1950s - but after surviving a relegation scare in the 2001-02 season, he was dismissed nine games into the following season with the Wearsiders sitting fourth bottom.
But Reid says the seeds of his sacking in October 2002 were planted years earlier when the club, then owned and chaired by Bob Murray, decided to spend £6m to build the North Stand extension, increasing the Stadium of Light capacity from 42,000 to 48,500, when the manager felt that money should have been invested in the team.
"We were seventh at the time, and in a board meeting the chairman floated the idea to put another 6,000 seats in the Stadium of Light," Reid told beIN Sports' Keys & Gray Show.
"In the board meeting, as manager I said that I didn't agree with that approach. I thought that how much that should have cost should have been spent on players.
"It was a cost, maybe £6m to £10m, which back then I thought would have been better spent trying to get a better quality of player.
"I had a good side, but to get from seventh upwards you need top international players.
"The board decided to put the 6,000 seats in, and I had to get on with my job.
"I could not get the quality of player in that I felt could move the club forward, so about nine games into a season and with us fourth from bottom the chairman decided to remove me from my post."
Reid was keen to improve the squad to build on the seventh-place finishes but instead the North Stand extension was opened in 2000, and Sunderland's on-field fortunes began to go into decline.
After Reid's sacking, Howard Wilkinson took charge and the Black Cats were relegated with a then-record low 19 points.
And only once since Reid left has the club finished in the top half of the Premier League, back in 2009-10 under Steve Bruce.
Reid said: "I thought the 42,000 was adequate for Sunderland.
"The best thing about football is the team on the pitch - that's what wins trophies.
"If you haven't got a quality side on the pitch then it's a struggle, and that should have been spent on quality players instead of the capacity of the stadium."
