First Division Focus
SOUND INVESTMENTS - OR
A year, in which we saw the first
£500,000 transfer quickly superceded by
the first £1-million footballer, culminated
in what some cynics might describe as
summer madness with one club investing
£1-million in two players who have never
kicked a ball in the First Division and
two youngsters, as yet to make their
League debuts, being signed for £250,000
each!
It's difficult to recall that at this time
last year the highest fee recorded by a
British club was the £495,000 paid by
Manchester United to Leeds for Scottish
international defender Gordon McQueen.
West Bromwich last season hit the
£500,000 mark when signing striker
David Mills from Middlesbrough but
scarcely had the ink -dried on those
transfer documents when the ebulient
Brian Clough made Trevor Francis our
first £1-million player.
The most curious transfer events of
the close-season took place at Manchester
City who disposed of internationals Peter
Barnes (England), Dave Watson (England)
and Asa Hartford (Scotland), plus
England under-21 cap Gary Owen, for a
reputed £1,800,000 and then proceded to
re-invest most of that amount in in
experienced players who may, or may
not, make it in the First Division.
City boss Malcolm Allison has never
been one for the conventional, of course,
and he staunchly defended his purchase
of Steve Mackenzie from Crystal Palace
for £250,000 by proclaiming: "Either a
player can play or he can't. It doesn't
matter whether he has played in the
League or not".
Mackenzie, a midfield player, had only
just established himself in the Palace
reserve team and he has not yet made his
debut in the Football League.
Mr. Allison also spent £750,000 on
striker Mick Robinson whose only claim
to fame is 14 goals fot Second Division
Preston in his first full season in the team
last term. The City boss also invested
another hefty fee in forward Bobby
Shinton, who has a good goalscoring
record in the Second, Third and Fourth
Divisions for Walsall, Cambridge and
Wrexham but who has yet to sample the
real stuff in the top section.
Mr. Allison did opt for experience.
SUMMER MADNESS?
though, when he signed Yugoslav inter
national defender Dragoslav Stepanovic
from Eintracht Frankfurt for £140,000.
Stepanovic will, presumably, be the
replacement for Dave Watson in the
middle of the City back four.
Mackenzie wasn't the only player
without League experience to command
a £250,000 fee during the close-season,
however. But the situation was a little
different in the case of former Forest
goalkeeper Chris Woods. He became the
star of Forest's League Cup run two
seasons ago, when Peter Shilton was
cup-tied, and he appeared in every round
including the final. He was kept out of
the League eleven by Shilton but now
Woods hopes to establish himself as a
top 'keeper with Q.P.R.
Peter Taylor, Forest's assistant-
manager, described his squad as the
"perfect team" following the summer
signings of two Scottish internationals
midfielder Asa Hartford, from
Manchester City, for £500,000, and
defender Frankie Gray, from Leeds for
£400,000.
With N. Ireland international midfield
star Martin O'Neill clearing up his
differences with the club, and signing a
new contract. Forest are going to have an
abundance of talent available to them as
they aim to retain the European Cup.
Champions Liverpool favourites to
finish top again this season kept their
squad up to strength when manager Bob
Paisley signed two internationals. The
Anfield chief paid St. Mirren £300,000
for winger Frank McGarvey and then
completed a £200,000 deal with Macabi
for Avi Cohen who made a big impression
in the Israel side in last year's World Cup
series in Argentina.
Going into the transfer market is
always something of a gamble, of course.
Some clubs, like Liverpool, can absorb
big money stars into their set-up without
in any way disturbing the balance of the
team or upsetting the morale of existing
staff.
Others - and Derby County provide a
recent example have purchased an
abundance of new players and then
struggled to avoid relegation.
It's a case of paying your money and
taking your chance.
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