Don Hutchison makes his first return to the Stadium of Light on Saturday as West Ham make the long trip up the A1 to take on Sunderland in this FA Barclaycard Premiership encounter.
Hutchison, the midfield powerhouse can expect a hot reception from the home supporters after his decision to quit the club in September did not go down well with the Black Cats faithful.
Said to have fallen out with manager Peter Reid, the Scottish international left the club on bad terms after he completed a successful first season in which he scooped the player of the year award.
Only Kevin Phillips scored more goals than "Hutch" for Sunderland last season and his tally of six assists made him the top creator as the side just missed out on a UEFA Cup place to Chelsea.
The Sunderland supporters will be pleased to know that Hutchison has not been as impressive at West Ham as their new favourite Jason McAteer has for them.
The Republic of Ireland international is in good form at the moment and will be an interested observer of the World Cup draw on Saturday morning. His distribution rate of 81% is nine percentage points better than his replacement.
After being frozen out at Blackburn, McAteer jumped at the opportunity of more regular first-team football with Sunderland and has responded well to his new challenge.
But despite his good form, McAteer has been on the winning side just once in his five appearances for the Black Cats and if you think he can help the team to claim only their second win in the last two months with the first goal you can get odds of 16/1 with surreySPORTS.
Hutchison who has failed to impress the Hammers fans so far after manager Glenn Roeder splashed out £5 million on him, will hope to kick-start his second spell with the east Londoners on Saturday.
Despite the fans' reservations, Hutchison did play a key role in the team's only away win this season setting up two goals in the 3-2 win at Ipswich and Sebastien Schemmel is the only West Ham player to have won more tackles than him this season.
This game will be a real test of Hutchison's character, but after already being sent off and then putting through his own net at former club Everton this year he should be strong enough to survive the barracking.
Benji Romaner