"£5m move, inevitably it was Chris Sutton who got the first goal, rolling the ball gently past Bryan Gunn in the fourth minute. Norwich fought back, however, and goals from Mark Bowen and Jon Newsome either side of halftime handed them the win and Blackburn their first league defeat. Blackburn's title challenge continued to stutter in the next match with a 1-1 away to leaders Newcastle United. Rovers took the lead through a 57th-minute penalty from Shearer after Wilcox had been brought down by Newcastle goalkeeper Pavel Srnicek. Blackburn looked to be leaving with all three points, but Newcastle scrambled"
"was being linked with some of the biggest clubs in the country, including Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal and Manchester United. Sutton became the most expensive player in English football in July 1994, when he was transferred from Norwich City to Blackburn Rovers for £5 million. In his first season at Ewood Park he developed a strong partnership (known as 'SAS') with Alan Shearer (who scored 34 times that season) and scored fifteen Premier League goals to help secure the club's first league title since 1914. A succession of injuries, combined with a loss of form, saw him make just 13 Premier"
"English league's highest rated strikers. After months of speculation that Shearer was going to join Manchester United, he was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a national record of £3.6 million in July 1992. He went on to enjoy an illustrious career as one of English football's leading goalscorers of all time, as well as collecting a league title with Blackburn in 1995, and becoming the world's most expensive footballer with his £15 million move in July 1996 to Newcastle United, where he remained until his retirement as a player ten years later. Shearer was also capped 63 times for England,"
"Keane became the most expensive footballer signed by an English football team. The 22-year-old Irish midfielder left relegated Nottingham Forest for Manchester United for a fee of £3.75 million. During the 1993–94 season, many players were transferred between Premier League clubs for fees exceeding £1 million. They included David White (Manchester City to Leeds United), David Rocastle (Leeds United to Manchester City), Roy Wegerle (Blackburn Rovers to Coventry City) and Tim Flowers (Southampton to Blackburn Rovers). At £2.5 million, Flowers became the most expensive goalkeeper in English football. Manchester United led the 1993–94 Premier League for almost all of the"
"than 200 times. He was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a £700,000 fee in June 1991 – making him the Ewood Park club's most costly signing at the time, just after wealthy owner Jack Walker bought the club. His spell at Blackburn was unsuccessful, only making four appearances before he joined Portsmouth on loan and then Leicester City permanently in the 1992–93 season, when Rovers were in the new Premier League and Leicester were challenging for promotion from Division One. During his time at Blackburn, the club earned promotion to the Premier League, but Agnew's part in the success was"
"Shearer was a first team regular by 1990, and stayed with Southampton until July 1992, when he was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a national record of more than £3 million. He then became the most expensive footballer in the world when Blackburn sold him to Newcastle for £15 million in 1996. He also scored 30 times for England internationally. Southampton were founding members of the Premier League in 1992–93, but spent most of the next ten seasons struggling against relegation. In 1995–96, Southampton finished 17th with 38 league points, avoiding relegation on goal difference. Two important wins during the"
"Southampton's regular goalkeeper in the 1989–90 season. Within a couple of years of becoming Southampton's first choice goalkeeper, Flowers was regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the English league and inevitable rumours of a transfer to a bigger club began. He finally left Southampton on 4 November 1993 when a £2.4million move to Blackburn Rovers made him the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain. His excellent goalkeeping was not quite enough to win Blackburn the Premier League title that season, but they did finish second to Manchester United, and went one better the following year when they won their"
"Sutton joined the club for an English record fee of £5 million, following competition from the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United for his signature. With the most expensive striker-partnership in the country, the club's fans were given all the more reason to expect their team to succeed in at least one of the four major competitions that they would be contesting next season. Japanese company Asics manufactured Blackburn's kit this season. British brewery McEwan's Lager were the kit sponsors. ""Blackburn Rovers' score comes first"" 1993–94 Blackburn Rovers F.C. season During the 1993–94 English football season, Blackburn Rovers F.C. competed"
"Ferdinand from Queens Park Rangers for a club-record £6 million. 10 July 1995: England midfielder Paul Gascoigne returned to the UK after three years in a £4.3-million move to Glasgow club Rangers. 12 July 1995: George Graham was banned from football for a year for accepting illegal payments, after he was fired as Arsenal manager five months earlier. 14 July 1995: Arsenal paid a club-record £4.75 million for England captain David Platt from Sampdoria. Platt was the world's costliest player, with transfer fees totalling £22.15 million. 17 July 1995: Mike Naylor, chairman and founder of the sponsors of the Football"
"when Manchester United signed Roy Keane for £3.75million. Blackburn then broke the national record in the 1994 close season by signing 21-year-old Norwich City striker Chris Sutton for £5million. In 1995, the record fee was broken three times in the space of six months. At the turn of the year, Andy Cole arrived at Manchester United in a deal worth £7million. After the season's end, Arsenal paid £7.5million to Inter Milan for Dutch forward Dennis Bergkamp, but Bergkamp had just spent days with his new club when Liverpool paid £8.5million for Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore. A year later, Alan"
"Southampton for £750,000. 23 July 1992 – David Rocastle ends nine years at Arsenal by joining Leeds United in a £2 million deal. 25 July 1992 – Everton are reported to be £3.6 million in debt. 27 July 1992 – The new Premier League rejects sponsorship deals offered by Bass Breweries and Ford Motor Company, meaning it will be without a sponsor in its first season. 28 July 1992 – Alan Shearer signs for newly promoted Blackburn Rovers for an English record fee of £3.5 million, with David Speedie moving in the opposite direction in part exchange. Aston Villa add"
"the club in January 1991 with the intention of turning Rovers into the greatest and most prosperous club England had ever seen. He also threatened to make Manchester United look ""cheap"" and within the first three years he spent £25 million on new players. This included breaking the British transfer record twice, signing Alan Shearer from Southampton for £3.3 million in 1992 and Chris Sutton from Norwich City for £5 million in 1994. The Ewood Park ground was reconstructed at a cost of more than £20 million to give it a capacity of just over 30,000, with the new Jack"
"a comprehensive 4–0 win over Chelsea and saw them match Tottenham's record of eight FA Cup triumphs. Ferguson felt that his current squad were good enough to challenge on all fronts in the season which followed the Double, and made only one close-season signing, paying Blackburn Rovers £1.2 million for defender David May, seeing the 24-year-old as a potential eventual successor to the ageing Steve Bruce. United were also linked with a move for the high-scoring young Norwich striker Chris Sutton, but the player then signed for Blackburn in English football's first £5 million transfer. The 1994–95 season saw United"
"Lou Macari's Celtic for the same fee. The 1994 close season saw two arrivals at Old Trafford. David May, the young Blackburn Rovers defender, was signed for £1.2 million as Alex Ferguson saw him as a potential long-term replacement for the ageing Steve Bruce, who had just agreed to remain at the club for another three seasons. Blackburn, attempting to make it third time lucky in their bid to beat United to the Premier League title, broke the national record fee that summer by paying Norwich City £5 million for striker Chris Sutton, who like Alan Shearer two summers earlier"
"season. Speculation of a transfer to Liverpool, who finished the season as FA Cup winners, also came to nothing. During the middle of 1992, Southampton's manager, Ian Branfoot, became ""the most popular manager in English football"", as he took telephone calls from clubs ""trying to bargain with players they don't want plus cash"". Although Branfoot accepted that a sale was inevitable, he claimed that ""whatever happens, we are in the driving seat"". In July 1992, Shearer was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £3.6 million, with David Speedie reluctantly moving to The Dell as part of the deal."
"1994–95 season included: Vinny Samways (Tottenham to Everton, £2 million), David Rocastle (Manchester City to Chelsea, £1.25 million), Jürgen Klinsmann (Monaco to Tottenham Hotspur, £2 million), John Scales (Wimbledon to Liverpool, £3 million) and Paul Kitson (Derby County to Newcastle United, £2.2 million). The title race was won by Blackburn Rovers, whose last title success was in 1914, and also was Blackburn's first major trophy in 67 years (last 1927–28 FA Cup). Kenny Dalglish's side secured the championship on the last day of the season despite losing 2–1 at his former club Liverpool, as Manchester United could only manage a"
"games and only narrowly missing out on a UEFA Cup place. They also got knocked out of the Champions League already in the group stage against comparatively unknown Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw. Compounding the misery was the sale of fan favourite and top scorer Alan Shearer, who went to Newcastle for a British transfer record at the end of July. ""Blackburn Rovers' score comes first"" ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Goalkeepers ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Defenders ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Midfielders ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Forwards ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Players transferred out during the season 1995–96 Blackburn Rovers F.C. season"
"Shearer became the most expensive player not only in England but in the world when he left Blackburn Rovers to sign for Newcastle United in a £15million deal. This fee, however, remained unsurpassed for more than four years. Premier League clubs have been increasingly successful at attracting foreign players, particularly since the removal of the limit on fielding players from common market countries in the mid 1990s. Despite the dominance of Manchester United for most of the Premier League era, a number of other clubs have enjoyed considerable success since 1992. Although Liverpool have not won a league title since"
"promoted to the manager's seat the following January when Walker moved to Everton. Norwich finished 12th in the Premiership in 1993-94 and started the following season reasonably well despite the (then) record English sale of Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers for £5 million. Despite the loss of Sutton, and the sale of Efan Ekoku shortly afterwards, the Canaries were seventh in the Premiership by Christmas and were in strong contention for a UEFA Cup place. But Deehan's men suddenly went into a free-fall, won only one of their final 20 games and plummeted to 20th place and relegation. A month"
"League Cup). They won promotion as Division One champions at the first attempt, but went straight back down again despite reaching the semi-finals of both cups that season. Coleman was sold to Blackburn Rovers, the defending league champions, for £2.8 million in December 1995. While at Palace, he was capped for Wales at senior level for the first time. In 2005, Palace supporters voted Coleman into their Centenary XI. Coleman joined Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £2.8 million. Blackburn did not retain the Premier League title they had won in 1995, and finished seventh, just missing"
"beginning of the 1992–93 season. He signed for £2.5million – a record for a club outside the top flight, and the highest fee for a defender at the time. He had been subject of a similarly high bid for ambitious Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, but opted to join Derby instead. He completed more than 100 competitive games for both Derby and his next club, Everton who he joined three seasons later. He left the Merseyside club in 1999, joining Blackburn Rovers for £1.7 million – seven years after they had first tried to buy him. Short endeared himself to"
"finish sixth in 1994 – the best finish in their history. On 5 June 1995, Barton became the most expensive defender in English football when he moved to Newcastle United for £4 million, joining ""The Entertainers"" being assembled by Kevin Keegan. Everything looked rosy for Barton, and a few England caps followed, his classy, comfortable style on the ball earned him a reputation as a true footballing full-back. His attacking role under Keegan however meant he did not always suit the national team and he did not make too many more appearances for England. He made his debut on 19"
"for £45,000 from Scunthorpe United in 1988, being then relocated to midfielder, and staying in the team despite the big investment in new players from owner Jack Walker. His part in Rovers' championship success is often understated, with many falsely believing that David Batty formed the strong midfield partnership with club captain Tim Sherwood in that team. In fact, a foot injury kept Batty out until the final five matches and Atkins proved to be an unlikely hero for Blackburn, playing 34 matches and scoring six goals in the title season, including important ones against Liverpool and Southampton. Atkins moved"
"the title on the last day by local rivals Liverpool. Liverpool won the FA Cup as well that season, beating Everton 3–1 in the final, with Mimms in the goal for the losers. He was later sold to Tottenham Hotspur in 1988 following the retirement of Ray Clemence, and had more first team chances at White Hart Lane than he had been given at Goodison Park. In December 1990, Blackburn Rovers manager Don Mackay signed him for a fee of £250,000 from Tottenham Hotspur making him Blackburn's most expensive transfer at the time. He was signed in the early stages"
"he became the club's top scorer for the fourth consecutive season. He managed to bag a hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers, and also found the net against former club Manchester City in the FA Cup. In all he played 214 games and scored 81 times for John Rudge's side. He was sold to Norwich City in June 1991. The fee that Norwich paid for him – £925,000 – was set by a Football League tribunal (Vale had wanted £1.5 million) and was a club record that stood until 1994. Vale signed his brother Jason to replace him, though he could not"
"season as play-off winners, ending 26 years outside the top flight. Rovers made headlines in the summer of 1992 by paying an English record fee of £3.5million for the 22-year-old Southampton and England centre forward Alan Shearer. After finishing fourth in 1992–93 and runners-up in 1993–94, they went on to win the Premier League title in 1994–95. The title chase went down to the last game of the season, but despite Rovers losing to Liverpool they edged out rivals Manchester United to win the championship. Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to the position of Director of Football at the end of"
"reduced to 6 points on appeal at a Football Association hearing, while the £600,000 fine is increased to £1.5 million and the FA Cup ban remains in place. 10 July 1994 – Graham Barrow, manager of newly promoted Chester City, stuns the club by handing in his resignation, after being told that he must break up and sell off his promotion-winning side. 11 July 1994 – Graham Taylor prepares for a Division One promotion challenge with Wolverhampton Wanderers, signing defender Steve Froggatt from Aston Villa for £1 million, while Clayton Blackmore (Manchester United's longest-serving player) signs for Middlesbrough on a"
"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"
"Chelsea, staying there for six seasons until moving to Southampton in 2003. He announced his retirement from football upon Southampton's relegation from the Premier League in 2005. In his club playing career, he scored 20 goals from 403 club appearances. He was twice named in the Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year, in 1995 with Blackburn and in 1998 with Chelsea. His return to Chelsea in 1997 in a £5 million transfer made him the most expensive defender in English football. As an England international, he made 36 senior appearances from 1994 until 2000, including starting all four England"
"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"
"Despite Branfoot's claim to be ""in the driving seat"", ""Saints"" failed to include a ""sell-on clause"" in the contract. Shearer, less than a month off his 22nd birthday, was the most expensive player in British football. In his four years in the Southampton first team, Shearer made a total of 158 appearances in all competitions, scoring 43 goals. Despite making just one goalless appearance as England failed to progress past the Euro 1992 group stages, Shearer was soon subject to an English transfer record-breaking £3.6million bid from Blackburn Rovers. Although there was also interest from Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson,"
"to Derby County for £24,000 in March 1949. The record was broken seven further times between 1949 and 1961, when Luis Suárez was sold by Barcelona to Inter Milan for £152,000, becoming the first ever player sold for more than £100,000. In 1968, Pietro Anastasi became the first £500,000 player when Juventus purchased him from Varese, which was followed seven years later with Giuseppe Savoldi becoming the first million pound player when he transferred from Bologna to Napoli. In English football, the first £1 million fee occurred in 1979, when Nottingham Forest signed striker Trevor Francis from Birmingham City. Later"
"strengthen their midfield in a £925,000 move for Chelsea and Scotland midfielder Pat Nevin. 19 July 1988 – England defender Gary Stevens moves to Scotland in a £1 million move from Everton to Rangers in the costliest transfer involving a British defender. He is replaced at Goodison Park by Newcastle United's Neil McDonald. 20 July 1988 – After two seasons at Barcelona, Mark Hughes returns to Manchester United for a club record £1.8 million, breaking the previous record of £1.75 million that the club paid for Bryan Robson seven years ago. 25 July 1988 – Less than three weeks after"