If the phrase "much-travelled" had never been used to describe footballers who accumulate a fair number of clubs during their working lives, Mick Harford would have a good case for claiming copyright.
Harford, these days assistant manager at MK Dons, Sunderland's opponents in Tuesday's Capital One Cup third-round tie, took in Lincoln City, Newcastle United, Bristol City, Birmingham City, Luton Town (twice), Derby County, Chelsea, Coventry and Wimbledon in a senior playing career stretching from 1977 to 1998.
According to his Wikipedia entry, there were 582 appearances during that time, producing 186 goals or roughly one every three games. He was additionally picked twice for England and has gone on to be manager of Rotherham and Luton and caretaker manager of Nottingham Forest and (twice) QPR.
One name is missing from that list, Harford's home town club of Sunderland. A player the supporters always longed to see in the red and white stripes he had followed up and down the country as a boy did finally make his return to Wearside, squeezing in all of 11 games and two goals at the back end of the 1992-93 season between the Chelsea stint and an even shorter stay at Coventry (one game only).
Although, as it turned out, Harford still had plenty of football and even goals, albeit at a slower scoring rate, left in him, he was already 34 by the time he reached Roker Park.
It was not a great Sunderland season; Terry Butcher, replacing Malcolm Crosby (who had taken the team to Wembley as losing FA Cup finalists the previous season), could do no better than fourth bottom of Division One, as the Championship was then styled.
But plenty of Sunderland supporters feel that if only he had arrived some years sooner, things might have been a great deal different for club and player.
"[Mick] really should have been a SAFC legend as a player," one wrote after reading Harford's thoughts on tonight's match - and his own career - at Salut! Sunderland.
The same fan remembered him as "a true Mackem, to the extent that he returned his signing on fee when injury scuppered his chances of making a regular contribution to our cause", but also for his habit of seeming to score each time he played against Sunderland for someone else.
Harford, too, recalls that knack. Among "quite a few" goals against Sunderland, he can hardly forget "scoring a hat trick, all three before half time, at the Baseball Ground [when Derby beat Sunderland 6-0 in the League Cup in 1990]" and getting a fair amount of grief from away supporters.
But he adds, quite reasonably: "You're a pro and go out to do your job. I was paid to play football. There must be a number of players who've ended up playing against their home town clubs and scoring."
As for Tuesday, the man who roared his team to victory as a boy of 14 in the the famous FA Cup final against mighty Leeds United in 1973 wants to break Wearside hearts all over again. We'll know soon enough, but he predicts the same scoreline that took MK Dons through in the last round against Blackburn Rovers: 2-1.