A talented man in every position...

Having being elected to the Football League for the 1890–91 season, Sunderland topped the First Division on three occasions in four seasons (1891-92, 1892-93 and 1894-95, separated by a runner-up spot in 1893-94).  In  1892–93 they became the first side to score 100 goals in a League season.
Their League record during these 4 seasons was:

P	W	D	L	F	A	PTS
116	81	13	22	345	153	175

This included just one home defeat!
On an individual level, Johnny Campbell scored a total of 83 goals in just 81 games in the three season in which the team won the League.
Tom Watson's  Sunderland team of this period of success are generally referred to as The Team of All the Talents. In  fact the name was coined  quite specifically in response to one match*.

On September 17th  1892 Tom Watson and Sunderland Association Football Club traveled to Perry Barr to play Aston Villa .  There were 12000 people present.  Hughie Wilson scored one goal, Jimmy Hannah scored 2 goals, Johnny Campbell scored 2 goals and John Harvie scored one goal. Sunderland beat Aston Villa  6-1. The Villa president, William McGregor (the founder of the Football League), was impressed with Sunderland's display and commented that they had a talented man in every position. The Sunderland team had ten Scottish players. Tom Porteous was an Englishman from Newcastle, but he had played in Scotland for Kilmarnock and Heart of Midlothian. 

GK	Ned Doig
RB	Tom Porteous
LB	Robert Smellie
RH	Hughie Wilson
CH	John Auld
LH	Will Gibson
OR	James Gillespie
IR	John Harvie
CF	Johnny Campbell
IL	Davy Hannah
OR	Jimmy Hannah

*Some sources state that this occurred after Sunderland's 7-2 home win over Villa in a friendly on 05.04.90, but this is not the case. 

Tom Watson

Sunderland's most successful manager was born in Newcastle.
Tom Watson took charge the year before Sunderland joined the Football League, and during the six seasons from 1889–96 he led the club to three league championships (1891–92, 1892–93 and 1894–95).

Watson was a believer in fitness and methodical preparation, introducing rules regarding training, diet and lifestyle that modern players would find far from rigorous.
In the summer of 1896 Watson joined Liverpool for a £300 a year salary that was double what he earned at Sunderland.
He led Liverpool for 742 games up until his death in 1915 at the age of 56. Under him Liverpool were First Division champions in 1901 and 1906 and Second Division champions in 1905.

If there was one man who had the supreme gift of creating esprit de corps on a football team of eleven men, then that man, was the same Tom who beat, and hammered, and forged to perfection the steel-tempered football machine that was in his day the "irresistible" Sunderland team...

 Victor Hall, Liverpool Echo 1924.