"The ""Today"" newspaper cancels its sponsorship of the Football League after just one year, and less than two weeks before the new season is due to begin. 6 August 1987 – Peter Beardsley becomes the most expensive player to move between British clubs when he joins Liverpool in a £1.9 million deal from Newcastle United. Britain's first million-pound player, Trevor Francis, returns to Britain when Graeme Souness signs him for Rangers in a £70,000 deal from Atalanta of Italy. 7 August 1987 – Portsmouth midfielder Mick Kennedy is fined £5,000 for claiming in a national newspaper that he was ""the"
"with Francis famously being introduced to the media by a manager impatient to play squashClough was in his red gym kit and carrying a racquet as he addressed the press conference. While recognised as the first British million-pound player, the actual transfer fee for the player was £1,150,000, including 15% commission to the Football League. Clough wrote in his autobiography that the fee was £999,999, as he wanted to ensure the million-pound milestone did not go to the player's head, although Francis says that was a tongue-in-cheek remark by Clough. Nottingham Forest retained the League Cup shortly afterwards (though Francis"
"within a few months of each other in mid-1992, this plan was abandoned. The issues creating the uncertainty in the game all centred on money. The increasing influence of money in English football was evident with such events as the first £1m transfer in the game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The first £2million player transferred between English clubs was Tony Cottee, who moved from West Ham United to Everton in July 1988 – although several players had already been sold by English clubs to foreign clubs for even higher fees. Before"
"fingers to make fake glasses. A permanent transfer was arranged in May. The first player to ever be transferred for a fee of over £100 was Scottish striker Willie Groves when he made the switch from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa in 1893, eight years after the legalisation of professionalism in the sport. It took just 12 years for the figure to become £1,000, when Sunderland striker Alf Common moved to Middlesbrough. It was not until 1928 that the first five-figure transfer took place. David Jack of Bolton Wanderers was the subject of interest from Arsenal, and in order"
"David Jack David Bone Nightingale Jack (3 April 1898 – 10 September 1958) was an English footballer who played as an inside forward. He scored 267 goals from 521 appearances in the Football League playing for Plymouth Argyle, Bolton Wanderers and Arsenal. He was the first footballer to be transferred for a fee in excess of £10,000, was the first to score at Wembleyin the 1923 FA Cup Finaland was capped nine times for England. After retiring as a player he managed Southend United, Middlesbrough and Shelbourne. Jack was born in Bolton, Lancashire, in 1898, the son of Scottish footballer"
"by an English club came in the summer of 1988, when Tottenham Hotspur signed Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle United. Within weeks of Gascoigne's transfer, the national record was broken again when Tony Cottee moved from West Ham United to Everton for £2.2 million, and again shortly afterwards when Ian Rush returned to Liverpool from Juventus for £2.8 million. In the space of two months in the summer of 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs: Jean-Pierre Papin transferred from Marseille to Milan, becoming the world's first ever £10 million player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with"
"making him top scorer that season. He retained that title the next season. In December 1976, Mills asked for a move and so was transfer listed at a value of £200,000, but nobody came in for him. Two years later, his form had again caught the attention of other managers, and so in 1979, Ron Atkinson paid £516,000 to take him to West Bromwich Albion, breaking the English transfer record and making Mills Britain's first half million pound footballer. Mills scored on his first full appearance for West Brom, but despite the huge sum of money invested in him he"
"four years later Denis Law joined Torino in the first £100,000 transaction involving a British club. The 1970s saw a rapid increase in transfer fees. Martin Peters became the first £200,000 player in 1970, but by 1977 Kevin Keegan's move to West Germany's Hamburger SV had taken the record to £500,000. In January 1979 David Mills became the first player to be purchased for £500,000 by a British club, but just one month later Nottingham Forest paid twice that amount to acquire Birmingham City's Trevor Francis. In 1981 Bryan Robson cost Manchester United £1,500,000, but fees paid by British clubs"
"sum which caused a national sensation and outrage amongst the football authorities. The £5,000 mark was first reached in 1922 when Falkirk paid that amount for West Ham United's Syd Puddefoot, and six years later Arsenal paid the first ever £10,000 fee to acquire David Jack of Bolton Wanderers. After the Second World War, the spending power of clubs in mainland Europe outstripped that of British clubs for the first time, resulting in several substantial jumps in the transfer record. John Charles became the first British player to command a fee of £50,000 when he joined Juventus in 1957, and"
"lagged behind those paid by clubs in Italy, France and Spain to take British players abroad until 1995, when Manchester United paid Newcastle United £7,000,000 for Andy Cole. The fees paid by the Premier League's top clubs began to increase at a rapid rate, with Alan Shearer commanding the first £15,000,000 fee in 1996, and the new millennium heralding the first £30,000,000 transfer, although sources differ as to whether this barrier was broken by Rio Ferdinand's move to Manchester United in 2002 or Andriy Shevchenko's transfer to Chelsea four years later for some reason, however Veron' s transfer to United"
"told. Back in February, Brian Clough had elected to spend the money that Forest had made from winning the league title in 1978 on a forward from Birmingham City. Clough made Trevor Francis Britain’s first £1 million footballer when he took him to Nottingham, but UEFA rules stipulated that he could not play European football for another three months.Therefore, the first game that Francis was eligible for was the final itself and, with Martin O'Neill injured and Archie Gemmill not selected by Clough, Francis was picked to play his first ever European club game, albeit out on the right wing."
"£2million+ transfer fees paid by British clubs. Tottenham Hotspur signed 21-year-old PFA Young Player of the Year Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle United, before Everton swooped for high-scoring forward Tony Cottee from West Ham United. After spending an unsuccessful season in Italy with Juventus, Ian Rush headed back to Liverpool for a second spell with the club he had scored more than 200 goals from during his first spell there. The England team made considerable progress during the 1980s after the barren performances of the previous decade, qualifying for every major tournament between 1980 and 1990, with the exception of the"
"Progression of the British football transfer fee record The progression of the British football transfer fee record tracks the increases in the record for the highest transfer fee paid or received by British association football clubs. A transfer fee is the sum of money paid by one club to purchase the contract, and therefore the playing services, of a professional footballer. Fees are not generally formally disclosed by the clubs involved, and discrepancies can occur in figures quoted in the press. Trevor Francis, for example, is regarded as Britain's first £1m player but was officially transferred for £975,000. The generally"
"Professionals Bolton Wanderers Arsenal David Jack David Bone Nightingale Jack (3 April 1898 – 10 September 1958) was an English footballer who played as an inside forward. He scored 267 goals from 521 appearances in the Football League playing for Plymouth Argyle, Bolton Wanderers and Arsenal. He was the first footballer to be transferred for a fee in excess of £10,000, was the first to score at Wembleyin the 1923 FA Cup Finaland was capped nine times for England. After retiring as a player he managed Southend United, Middlesbrough and Shelbourne. Jack was born in Bolton, Lancashire, in 1898, the"
"on 29 February 1904. In all he won three caps, scoring two goals. Alf Common Alfred Common (25 May 1880 in Millfield – 3 April 1946 in Darlington) was an English footballer who played at inside forward or centre forward. He is most famous for being the first player to be transferred for a fee of £1,000 on his transfer to Middlesbrough from Sunderland in 1905. Common played for South Hylton and Jarrow in North East England before joining Sunderland in 1900. Sunderland finished Division One runners-up in 1900–01, after which Common transferred to Sheffield United in October 1901 for"
"reported figure of £1,180,000 included Value Added Tax, fees to the Football League and Francis' signing fee. Discrepancies may also occur due to deals which involve additional sums to be paid at a later date after a player has made a certain number of appearances, joint fees for two or more players, or deals in which one player is exchanged for a sum of money plus another player. The first ever three-figure transfer fee was the £100 paid by Aston Villa in 1893 for Willie Groves. Eleven years later, Alf Common joined Middlesbrough for the first ever four-figure fee, a"
"was replaced by first team coach Glenn Roeder, whose two previous brief and unsuccessful spells in management had been in the lower divisions with Gillingham and then Watford. In November 2000, the English transfer record was broken for the first time in more than four years. The £15 million record set when Alan Shearer moved from Blackburn to Newcastle United in July 1996 had been equalled in May 2000 when Chelsea paid Atlético Madrid £15 million for Dutch striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, but now it was broken when Leeds United paid West Ham £18 million for 22-year-old central defender Rio"
"Alf Common Alfred Common (25 May 1880 in Millfield – 3 April 1946 in Darlington) was an English footballer who played at inside forward or centre forward. He is most famous for being the first player to be transferred for a fee of £1,000 on his transfer to Middlesbrough from Sunderland in 1905. Common played for South Hylton and Jarrow in North East England before joining Sunderland in 1900. Sunderland finished Division One runners-up in 1900–01, after which Common transferred to Sheffield United in October 1901 for £325. Neither Sunderland nor Sheffield United had cause to regret the deal in"
"the first team. This caught Derby County's attention and in the winter of 1999 he transferred for a then club record fee of £3 million, making him the 4th most expensive teenager in British football history. During his time at Derby County he scored 17 goals in 92 league games, including playing in the famous 1-0 win at Old Trafford vs Manchester United, and scoring the winning goal against Spurs. He then had a short loan spell at Huddersfield Town, where he scored once against Barnsley. At the start of 2004 he moved to Leicester City where he started only"
"local rivals and League champions Aston Villa for a fee which, after much speculation, was confirmed at Small Heath's Annual General Meeting as £350 guaranteed, plus the proceeds of a match to be played between the two clubs. The £350 fee was reported to be a transfer record. He went on to win three Football League titles with Aston Villa, including a League and FA Cup double in his first season with the club, topped the First Division scoring charts in 1897–98, and scored six goals in four games for the England national team. For consistency, attendances and goalscorers' names"
"every game but one over the season, and Alan Buckley was the club's top scorer with 8 goals, all scored in the league. Jim Smith, in his first full season as Birmingham's manager, brought Argentina's World Cup-winning full-back Alberto Tarantini to the club. Trevor Francis, who joined Birmingham as a 15-year-old, became the first British footballer to be transferred for a fee of at least £1 million when Brian Clough signed him for league champions Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The basic fee was below £1m – Clough claimed in his autobiography to have set the fee at £999,999 because"
"opener and set up the second. Due to his low morale, Greaves was transfer-listed and Brazilian attacker Dino Sani was signed as his replacement. Both Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea made £96,500 bids, which were both accepted. After he left, the club went on to win the league title in 1961–62. After protracted negotiations, Bill Nicholson signed Greaves for Tottenham Hotspur in December 1961 for £99,999 – the unusual fee was intended to relieve Greaves of the pressure of being the first £100,000 player in British football. He joined Spurs just after they became the first club in England to complete"
"as his next club as he still lived in the area following his service in the RAF; the Stoke board sanctioned the move on the condition that the deal was to remain a secret until the end of the season, so as to not disrupt the club's title bid. The secret was revealed in a matter of hours, as an unknown person informed the press. On 10 May 1947, immediately after a Great Britain versus Rest of Europe match in Glasgow (Britain won 6–1), he made the move for £11,500, at the age of 32. The match itself raised £30,000"
"the first £1,000 transfer fee took winger Harold Buck from Hunslet to Leeds. Internationally, the game had settled into a steady pattern of alternating tours, with either Australia or New Zealand visiting Britain once every two years, and Britain reciprocating in the southern hemisphere. The war had intervened, but the schedule was picked up again after hostilities ceased. An increasing number of Australian and New Zealand players headed for the bigger pay packets on offer in England, many of them destined never to be seen again on the playing fields of their home countries. In 1933 a proposed hybrid sport"
"completed on 1 July 2009, setting not only a new British transfer record, but also a new world record (either in pounds or euros). In turn, that record was broken on 1 September 2013 when Real announced that their £85.3 million (€100 million) purchase of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur had been completed. This record was broken on 8 August 2016, when Manchester United signed Paul Pogba from Juventus for a fee of £89 million, and again on 6 January 2018, when Philippe Coutinho moved to Barcelona from Liverpool for a reported initial fee of £106 million, which could rise"
"the formation of the FA Premier League, the highest transfer fee paid was £2.9million for the transfer of Dean Saunders from Derby County to Liverpool during the 1991 close season. The first £3million player was Alan Shearer, who moved from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers in July 1992, the summer before the first Premier League season. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles"
"Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers' Association in April 1995. While coming to the end of his spell with Blackburn, in 1996 Shearer became the first player to score 100 Premier League goals. After renewed interest from Manchester United, who initially tried to sign him before Blackburn, a 25-year-old Shearer invoked a release clause in his Blackburn contract and moved to Newcastle United in July 1996 for a world football transfer record of £15m. This nearly doubled the previous British record of £8.5m for Stan Collymore a year earlier. Blackburn had refused Manchester United's offer, and although other"
"months later when Manchester United signed Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest for £3.75 million. In 1994, Blackburn Rovers paid a record £5 million for Chris Sutton from Norwich City, a decade after the world's first £5 million transfer. Then, in 1995, the national record fee was broken three times in six months – first when Andy Cole joined Manchester United from Newcastle United for £7 million, then with Arsenal's £7.5 million move for Dutch striker Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan, and finally with Liverpool's £8.5 million move for Nottingham Forest's Stan Collymore. The 1996 transfer of Alan Shearer from Blackburn"
"as substitute in a 1–1 draw away to Bournemouth on 22 March 1997. Following a four-day trial with Manchester United in February, he signed for the Premier League team on 25 March 1998 for what was understood to be an initial fee of £500,000, which could have potentially risen to £2 million dependent on appearances and international recognition, with a sell-on clause. As an attacking midfielder, he faced massive competition from more established players in both positions and his first-team opportunities were restricted, although he did make the substitute's bench in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final. He later admitted"
"September 1999. Manager Gordon Strachan began selecting him in Premier League matches ahead of Swedish international Magnus Hedman despite saying Kirkland was ""big Bambi who couldn't kick the ball out of the penalty box"". His performances were rewarded at the end of the 2000–01 season when he made his debut for the England under-21s, and was voted Coventry's Players' Player of the Year by his teammates. He was linked with moves to Arsenal and Liverpool, despite his relatively limited experience and was eventually bought by Liverpool for £6 million in August 2001. At the time he was the most expensive"
"and made his professional Premier League debut in 1996. He became a fan favourite, winning the Hammer of the Year award the following season. He earned his first senior international cap in a match against Cameroon in 1997, setting a record as the youngest defender to play for England at the time. His achievements and footballing potential attracted Leeds United and he transferred to the club for a record-breaking fee of £18 million. He spent two seasons at the club, becoming the team captain in 2001. He joined Manchester United in July 2002 for around £30 million, breaking the transfer"
"Trevor Francis Trevor John Francis (born 19 April 1954) is a former footballer who played as a forward, with most games for Birmingham City (1971–1979). Throughout his playing career, he played for several clubs in England, and also had spells in the United States, Italy, and Scotland. He became England's first £1 million player following his transfer from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in 1979, and later won two consecutive European Cups with the club in 1979 and 1980. At international level, he played for England 52 times between 1976 and 1986, scoring 12 goals, and played at the 1982"
"for Manchester City for a transfer fee reported as being between £1.25 million and £1.5 million. He made his debut in a 4–1 Division One win against Oxford United and scored his first goal for Manchester City three weeks later against his former club Swindon. The following season, he was a regular in the first team until suffering an injury which sidelined him for four months. During Horlock's absence, Clark was sacked and chairman Francis Lee later observed that Horlock was one of only two good purchases Clark made. City were struggling at the foot of the table, and were"