The title is becoming quite a catch phrase lately. Hands up, who has stayed up past bedtime when this gem of a David Sullivan tweet has hit the land of social media? I don’t know about you but the whole transfer process has become a little tiresome in recent years. Yes, it is exciting when we are linked with any quality player, but to be honest, most of the players that come on our radar nowadays I have never heard of before! Slaven Bilic is said to be after a new centre back and every time one is mentioned I am typing in google or wikipedia! My frustration is borne out of two factors. The outrageous prices paid together with agents fees, and the time it takes to complete a transfer. I had it on good authority as far back as last Wednesday that Alex Song was returning to West Ham on a season long loan. Nearly a week later and a deal is still to be finalised? Some may recall when we signed Phil Parkes? The first we ever heard of it happening was when he had signed one afternoon and it was splashed all across the back page of the Evening Standard. What a lovely surprise that was!
It is long way from days of old. A friend of mine sent me a few snippets of a Shoot magazine from the mid sixties the other day. One article had a headline of “200,000 pounds couldn’t buy Geoff Hurst” Not long after the 1966 World Cup, that was the offer Matt Busby made to West Ham for Hurst. Ron Greenwood sent a three word telegram back to Busby. NO MATT – RON. Manchester United were prepared to go higher, perhaps another 25%, but the Hammers had made their intent clear that they were not selling. That was the way things were back then. If a club did not want to sell, they didn’t. The clubs did the deals between themselves and if a player put in a transfer request he would not get a transfer percentage. Only the ones who had not put in a transfer request got any proceedings from the transfer money. There were no agents and there was no players insisting on Champions League football. In fact, neither existed! Despite some clubs, like Man United, having a bit more money than others, there was no hierarchy of clubs waiting like vultures to swoop on any promising player from a lesser club, lest the gulf should ever be diminished.
When WW2 ended in 1945, the British record stood at 14,000 pounds for the 1938 transfer of Bryn Jones from Wolves to Arsenal. By 1955 it had risen to 35,000 pounds for Eddie Firmani of Charlton to Sampdoria of Italy. When Don Revie of Leeds United paid 165,000 pounds for Allan Clarke in 1969 it seemed a whole World away from the fees of the post war period. Our own Martin Peters, in a deal that saw Jimmy Greaves come to Upton Park, made the headlines with an estimated 200,000 British record fee in 1970. The first Million pound man was Trevor Francis in 1979. The biggest jump in transfer fees though is from 1995 to now. Stan Collymore’s 8.5m tag to Gareth Bale’s 85 million is quite staggering. Now if David Gold suggests on twitter that we are going to break that record, I will not be going to bed!