Big Deal!: One Hundred Managers, their Greatest Signing and the One Who Got Away!

By Richard Sydenham

Big Deal! is crammed with exclusive transfer stories that have never been heard before outside the boardroom. Veteran journalists Richard Sydenham and John Wragg have gained exclusive contributions from an array of star names including Jurgen Klopp, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Claudio Ranieri and the late Gerard Houllier, plus homegrown legends such as Kevin Keegan, David Moyes, Sam Allardyce and Martin O'Neill. You'll get the inside track on some of the most momentous transfers in British football, including the transfers that never quite made it over the line. Kevin Keegan's shock move to Southampton at the height of his fame and Pat Jennings' switch from north London rivals Tottenham to Arsenal are just two examples of transfers that caused a stir, and the managers involved with the moves explain how they made them happen. The transfers that never materialised will surprise many. Learn how Wolves nearly landed Michel Platini before his career exploded with Juventus, and how ambitious Burnley tried desperately to sign a young Harry Kane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Sep 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781801503211

Book preview

MICKY ADAMS

Managed: Fulham (1996–1997, player-manager); Swansea City (1997, player-manager); Brentford (1997–1998, player-manager); Nottingham Forest (1999, caretaker); Brighton & Hove Albion (1999–2001 & 2008–2009); Leicester City (2002–2004); Coventry City (2005–2007); Port Vale (2009–2010 & 2011–2014); Sheffield United (2010–2011); Tranmere Rovers (2014–2015); Sligo Rovers (2015)

MY BIG DEAL

Bobby Zamora: Bristol Rovers to Brighton & Hove Albion for £100,000 in 2000

We initially got him on loan from Bristol Rovers. We were in the Second Division when it seemed everybody was playing with a big centre-forward. We were looking around for one. I’d rung around a few clubs and I spoke to Ian Holloway, who was down at Rovers, to see what he’d got, if he’d got anybody that fitted the bill. He said he’d got a lad who had just been on loan at Bath playing in the Southern League and had scored a few goals there, I think it was 11 in eight games.

Quite simply, I said to Olly, ‘How much is he on?’ He said about £120 a week. So, I said, ‘Send him over, he fits our bill perfectly.’ I signed Zamora before I had seen him play, although Dick Knight, the old chairman at Brighton, said publicly that we’d been to a game and seen Zamora, which we hadn’t.

I took him blind. Zamora came into the building, skinny, six-footone-plus, a kid with a baby face and you thought, ‘What we got here?’ I think he had six games on loan for us, scored six goals. So, we decided to sign him. Zamora cost us £100,000 in the end. A fantastic bargain. That was the start of his progress and Brighton getting back to where they wanted to be.

Zamora was a very clever player. He had a great understanding. To be fair he was one of the first centre-forwards who could play on his own up there, he understood the role. Technically very good, right and left foot, good in the air. What I liked about him was he could take a bollocking at half-time as well. If there was something to be said you could say it to him, he didn’t sulk, he took it on board and then he’d go out for the second half and try and prove me wrong. I have to say, though, it was very infrequent I’d have to do that with him. Very intelligent and good to manage, knew where he wanted to go.

When we first got him, we were told he wouldn’t score goals on a regular basis in the old Third Division. But he did. Then the year after when we got promoted from the Second Division to the First Division it was, ‘Oh, well maybe that’s his level.’ In the First Division, the Championship as it is now, he got his goals there as well and got his move into the Premier League. I wouldn’t say Zamora was prolific in the Premier League with Spurs, West Ham, Fulham, QPR, but looking at his record, there was a season at Fulham for instance where he played 48 games and scored 19 goals. It’s a decent record.

Zamora scored goals at all levels and made his England debut as well so I’m proud of the boy. It was a gamble for us in the first place, not in terms of the money, not when he was on £120 a week, if he failed it didn’t matter too much. We took the gamble on him for £100,000, Dick Knight did a fantastic deal with Bristol Rovers, and to see Zamora progress like he did, it’s fairytale stuff really from where he came from.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Muzzy Izzet: Chelsea to Fulham on loan in 1996

The one that got away from me was Muzzy Izzet, early on when I was manager of Fulham. He was playing for Chelsea reserves and I’d seen him a lot. As a manager at that level I took great care and attention about who was playing in the reserve leagues, in London especially, so I used to go to Chelsea a lot.

Izzet was one of the standout candidates. We’d actually agreed a deal with Chelsea to take him on loan to Fulham. But come the Thursday afternoon he goes and signs for Leicester. Martin O’Neill pipped me. Steve Walford, one of the coaches at Leicester, had been down a couple of times to look at Izzet and they were at a game I was at. This would have been maybe the February.

I think what we did is make Leicester move [quicker] when they heard Izzet was coming to us on loan. Chelsea would have used that against Leicester and said, ‘Listen, we’ve agreed everything with Fulham for Izzet to go on loan for the rest of the season unless you act now.’ Leicester bit on it, took him on loan there instead, then bought Izzet and look what a career he had.

It was frustrating because we’d done a lot of homework on him. I’d been badgering Chelsea about taking him. They thought he was probably better than Fulham were at that time in the old Third Division, so it was back to square one for me.

Good pro, worked hard, could do some fantastic things with the ball. There was a doubt about his pace at times but he outweighed that with his ability on the ball. He could see a pass and physically, too, he could tackle. I suppose that was par for the course for anyone who played for Martin O’Neill.

But eventually I did manage him when I went to Leicester. I remind Muzzy of that. He didn’t know anything about it though. Players often don’t.

GRAHAM ALEXANDER

Managed: Preston North End (caretaker 2011–2012); Fleetwood Town (2012–2015); Scunthorpe United (2016–2018); Salford City (2018–2020); Motherwell (2021–)

MY BIG DEAL

Josh Morris: Bradford City to Scunthorpe United on a free transfer in 2014, after he had already played for Graham at Fleetwood Town on loan previously from Blackburn Rovers

It’s very close between Josh and Nathan Pond. I signed Josh twice, and he was part of our promotion-winning team after I brought him in on loan from Blackburn to Fleetwood. He came in the January and played on the left side of the diamond and helped us go all the way through to the playoff final at Wembley, where we beat Burton to move up to League One.

He was fantastic for me and we then signed him again on loan for the following season and he played all through the campaign. His parent club was Blackburn at that time and he moved away at the end of that season when he signed for Bradford.

In that time, I changed jobs and became the Scunthorpe manager. I went back in for Josh and was able to secure him on a free transfer despite him having another two years left on his contract, which we took over.

He scored 20 goals for us in his first season and you felt that he was going to score every time he got the ball. He was one of the highest scorers in the country that year and all from midfield. He’s got a great attitude, loves training and loves playing games and there was a trust between him and me, which is why managers go back and sign players again. He knew what I expected of him and I knew what to expect from Josh.

Josh did brilliant for me at both clubs. Ironically, I also tried to sign him when I was at Salford, but I left the club beforehand. But once I left, he did then join Salford. I also tried to bring him to Motherwell in my early days here, but that never panned out.

I couldn’t finish this interview without talking about Pondy as well. I inherited him at Fleetwood where he was a club legend, but it hadn’t been working out for him and he was on loan at Grimsby when I joined. I brought him back and he was great for me.

I respected Nathan a lot on and off the field. I later signed him for Salford as I knew what he could give me to get us out of the National League – he was a great leader of men, terrific professionalism, knew what it took to win promotion and he’s right up there on a similar pedestal to Josh as my best signings.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

CHÉ ADAMS: Ilkeston Town to Fleetwood Town for £30,000 in 2014

The club had sold Jamie Vardy just before I got there and not only did they make some money from that move, but they also decided as a club they were keen to find the next Jamie Vardy at that non-league level.

Ilkeston at the time were playing 18-, 19-year-old players in their first team and our chief scout Steve Davis had highlighted Ché as a very good player. We did our homework, I watched him and we decided we wanted to make a move for him. He was a bit raw at the time, but was quick, powerful and he had really good movement and appeared to be a player who was playing at a level beyond his years.

We were about 24 hours from signing him when Sheffield United received a tip-off about him and effectively blew us out of the water.

I believe it was Steve Chettle who had a role at Ilkeston and he obviously gave his old Nottingham Forest team-mate Nigel Clough the warning that Ché Adams was soon to be sold to Fleetwood and urged him to sign him for Sheffield United instead because Ché was destined for the top, which has been proven fairly accurately.

We didn’t know then he would later move to Birmingham City for £2m and play international football for Scotland. We played it right and didn’t do anything wrong. Unfortunately, the contacts network can help you in the game but on this occasion it went against us as it was difficult for us to compete with Sheffield United.

SAM ALLARDYCE

Managed: Limerick (1991–1992); Preston North End (caretaker 1992); Blackpool (1994–1996); Notts County (1997–1999); Bolton Wanderers (1999–2007); Newcastle United (2007–2008); Blackburn Rovers (2008–2010); West Ham United (2011–2015); Sunderland (2015–2016); England (2016); Crystal Palace (2016–2017); Everton (2017–2018); West Bromwich Albion (2020–2021)

MY BIG DEAL

Jay-Jay Okocha: Paris Saint-Germain to Bolton Wanderers on a free transfer in 2002

There’s more than one actually. But the two world-class signings, without a doubt, were Jay-Jay Okocha and Fernando Hierro. Both were when I was managing Bolton and are the two outstanding signings. What makes it even more remarkable is they were both free transfers.

I would have to say that Youri Djorkaeff came close to those two as my best signing, because he was a World Cup winner and a European Championship winner. But Jay-Jay, on the world stage and his ability as a footballer and the fact that he captained Bolton for three years, just pipped it.

I got Jay-Jay when he had finished at PSG. He had been to Germany, he’d been to France. Everyone wanted to come to the English Premier League and Jay-Jay was one of those. So, we met him in Charles de Gaulle Airport before he flew out to the 2002 Japan and South Korea World Cup. I didn’t think we would be in with a chance really.

But as soon as Jay-Jay got back from the World Cup we rang him to meet him again and, because we were first in and nobody else had actually made a jump for the talent that he was, we persuaded Jay-Jay to come and sign for us before anybody else expressed their interest.

That was one hell of a signing at the time. Everybody thought Jay-Jay would go to somewhere like Manchester United or Arsenal, somewhere like that, a club of that ilk. And he turned up at Bolton!

With Hierro, it was all about the Premier League again. Having fallen out with Real Madrid after many years as their captain, having fallen out with the club president as well, he had come back from Qatar, which wasn’t a move he had enjoyed too much.

We gave him the chance to not just experience the Premier League, which he wanted, but also it was the opportunity for his children to experience England, to learn English, so it was a double-barrelled situation for him.

It was great for him and absolutely magnificent for us. This guy was the best passer in the Premier League by a million miles.

It was Bolton, I know. But we were Premier League and it all started with Djorkaeff. Once everybody thought, ‘Why is a World Cup winner playing at Bolton? What’s happening there?’ he was the inspiration for many who came to us.

Ultimately it led to Nicolas Anelka playing for Bolton, one of the best goalscorers we’ve ever known. Happy days.

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

Samuel Eto’o: Real Mallorca to Bolton Wanderers for £8m, possibly 2002

Robert Lewandowski: Lech Poznań to Blackburn Rovers for £7m in 2010

They were the two that got away.

It was Bolton again with Samuel Eto’o. The club said they couldn’t afford it, which was ridiculous. Bolton, typical tight so-and-so’s they were, but there you go.

There was also Robert Lewandowski when I was at Blackburn Rovers. It was just seven or eight million Euros [£6m–£7m], as he was still at his club in Poland [Lech Poznań].

This is a good story because he got to the airport to fly over to meet with us and you remember the Icelandic ash cloud of 2010? Well because of that he couldn’t get on the plane!

That ash cloud crisis lasted for a few days and it meant that Lewandowski never arrived from Poland. He ended up signing for Borussia Dortmund instead of us. He tells the story himself these days.

I could have been a God bringing Lewandowski to Blackburn Rovers. He could have got us in the top half of the league with the goals he went on to get.

We wouldn’t have held on to Lewandowski long, though, before selling him, that’s what Blackburn did once the owner, Jack Walker, had died. There was no funding of the club anymore, so Lewandowski would have been a success and sold on. But at least it would have been a nice problem to have had, having managed him first!

JIMMY ARMFIELD

Managed: Bolton Wanderers (1971–1974); Leeds United (1974–1978)

MY BIG DEAL

Tony Currie: Sheffield United to Leeds United for £250,000 in 1976

A few players from the Don Revie era were coming to the end and one or two of them had to move on and I was at a stage where I had to see what there was available in the youth team and find out where we needed strengthening. I had replaced Brian Clough after his short spell at Leeds so it was important I got things right after what had been a rocky time at Elland Road for quite a number of weeks. It wasn’t an easy time to come in as we were 19th in the league and even though they had won the league the season before, it was clear that the squad needed some freshening up. I added the likes of Ray Hankin to play alongside Joe Jordan, Arthur Graham from Aberdeen, and I also bought Brian Flynn, who was a workhorse midfielder. They were good players and the team was doing all right but when I bought Currie things started to click a little better.

Currie was available and several clubs could have gone and got him and I don’t know why that didn’t happen. But I watched him a couple of times and eventually I agreed the deal myself with Sheffield United, where he had been very successful for many years, before I even spoke to my chairman. The chairman asked me, ‘What if he’s no good?’ I said, ‘Well let’s see how he goes on Saturday and then we can take it from there.’ But there was no need to worry, he was wonderful for us and just did something different to everyone else. He was a playmaker but had goals in him as well. You need that balance in a team.

Currie had an inbuilt talent and a lot of flair even though he was a big man. He was your typical gem that needed polishing. I brought him into my office one day and told him that if he kept playing as he was he would be back in the England team by the end of the season – and he was, after I gave him a glowing report when Ron Greenwood called me. I told Ron that Tony was our best player and subsequently he returned to the England team. He liked to be 100 per cent fit all the time and in peak physical condition so occasionally he would come to me and say, ‘Boss, I have this strain, or niggle,’ but I’d just walk away and tell him to get on with it. I knew how important he was to us and that we always needed him to play. That’s the greatest compliment I can give him.

I bought Peter Thompson from Liverpool when I was Bolton manager and he is another I would single out. We had just won the old Third Division and I knew we needed more experience to cope with life in the higher league as I was getting by with six or seven under-21s in the team. I spoke to Bill Shankly and commented that I noticed he wasn’t picking Thompson in his team. Shankly, seeing where I was going with my thread, quickly came back to me and said, ‘Forget it, he’s too valuable for us.’ But I kept talking to Shanks and offered all the money the club had to spend, which was about £18,000. Eventually he agreed to sell him to us and he added the experience and quality I was looking for. Peter remained at Bolton for five or six years so he proved a good buy, as I knew he would be.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

No one

No one especially that I can recall. I was fortunate in that whenever I really wanted a player I usually managed to persuade my chairman to help me get our man!

LEN ASHURST

Managed: Hartlepool United (1971–1974); Gillingham (1974–1975); Sheffield Wednesday (1975–1977); Newport County (1978–1982); Cardiff City (1982–1984 & 1989–1991); Sunderland (1984–1985); Al Wakrah (1988–1989); Pahang (1991–1992); Weymouth (1992–1993)

MY BIG DEAL

John Aldridge: South Liverpool to Newport County for £2,500 in 1979

Aldo has to be classed as my best signing in terms of value for money, pure quality and considering what he went on to achieve. I paid his non-league club South Liverpool just £1,500 straight away and then a further £1,000 a year later. I can’t take all the credit, though, as I have my brother Robin to thank for discovering him. Robin worked at Ford Motor Company and that’s where John worked also, on the lathe. He told me there was this lad at his place who was playing for South Liverpool and was scoring lots of goals and creating some interest.

I went along to have a look at him. I knew after 15 minutes that I wanted to sign him. He led the line, he held the ball up, he was sharp around the box, he could drop off and create space for himself or he could run at the centre-half and push defenders going forwards. He was just very impressive in a number of ways. And as a Scouser like myself he was down to earth and he lifted the dressing room with his attitude and his humour.

In terms of value for money, I also signed Tommy Tynan for Newport from Lincoln for just £1,500. He became a legend there with all his goals. I signed him in the boardroom at Liverpool with Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly there.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Dave Bennett: Cardiff City to Sunderland

When I was manager of Cardiff City, the backbone of my team was Dave and Gary Bennett, Jeff Hennerman, the centre-forward, and a stalwart already at the club, Phil Dwyer. I then signed Gary Bennett after I moved to Sunderland in 1984 because we needed a centre-half. He became one of my best-ever signings actually and remained an integral part of the team long after I departed. But my regret is that I should have signed his brother Dave as well because they were close brothers and signed from Manchester City to Cardiff as a duo and I should have kept them together because they were both terrific players.

Dave was at Coventry City by this time, where he ended up having five great years. But at this stage I am confident he would have joined his brother at Roker Park. I liked the fact he could play striker or right wing, though I found he was happier on the wing with space ahead of him to run into rather than space behind him. Aside from the football, Davie was also a great character in the dressing room, and he would have added a lot in that sense at Sunderland also.

The reason I didn’t sign him, though, was partially down to race grounds. I still remember the chairman Tom Cowie’s words. He said, ‘It would be a risk to sign two black players – and also, I haven’t got the money,’ so he wriggled out of the signing of Dave Bennett on financial grounds. But the real reason was fear of a backlash from the fans, as in those days, the late 1970s and even into the 1980s, it was still quite unusual to see a black person around the north-east. Thankfully that is all changed.

But it’s as if racial tolerance started in London and slowly crept northwards as we saw the likes of Mark Walters having problems in Scotland deep into the 1980s when he was at Rangers. Even Gary [Bennett] was only the second black player to play for Sunderland after Roly Gregoire. I pushed Tom Cowie as hard as I could to sign Dave as well and he was adamant, he was not going to bend for those reasons on a 50-50 basis, on both financial and racial grounds.

I was prepared to offload a few players to recoup the money so that we could accommodate Dave, but it wasn’t to be, which is a shame as he would have made a big difference to us.

RON ATKINSON

Managed: Kettering Town (1971–1974); Cambridge United (1974–1978); West Bromwich Albion (1978–1981 & 1987–1988); Manchester United (1981–1986); Atlético Madrid (1988–1989); Sheffield Wednesday (1989–1991 & 1997–1998); Aston Villa (1991–1994); Coventry City (1995–1996); Nottingham Forest 1999

MY BIG DEAL

Bryan Robson: West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United for £1.5m in 1981

Bryan Robson was my best signing in terms of the finest player I ever signed. We broke the [British] transfer record for him so it wasn’t like he was a bargain buy, but I didn’t have any qualms about it as I knew what we were getting. I knew ‘Robbo’ well from when I managed him at West Bromwich Albion and as soon as I became United manager I wanted to sign him straight away. But funnily enough it wasn’t like I told him when I left West Brom, ‘I’m coming back for you.’ He sounded me out and said, ‘Don’t forget to come back for me!’

The centre of midfield was an area we were particularly weak in so it was a no-brainer for me. I told the directors at Old Trafford that while we were breaking the record it wasn’t even a gamble. But if anyone at Man United was slightly nervous about the price those fears soon quelled as 18 months later Juventus offered to double the fee we paid. But there was no way we were selling as he was a United great in the making, as he proved to be in time. Bryan had everything you would want from a midfielder. He was dynamic, he could tackle, he could kick with both feet, he would work up and down the pitch and do the ugly things, and he could score goals, with his head also. He was the complete midfield player – pure gold. There was no other manager in football then who would not have wanted him in their team.

I made so many signings over the years and unfortunately I can’t name all of the good ones but others who I would single out would be Mark Bosnich [a free transfer from Sydney Olympic to Aston Villa] and Ugo Ehiogu [£40,000 from West Bromwich Albion to Villa], who were both signed for little or no money. And Paul McGrath was a great signing from St Patrick’s in Dublin for £40,000, when I brought him to United. My scouts sent him over and I had a look at him for a month. He was a late developer but he was one who you knew was always going to make it. I was glad to work with him again at Villa some years later.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Gary Lineker: Leicester City to Manchester United for £800,000 in 1985

The one who I would like to have taken would have been Gary Lineker from Leicester to Man United. I was told I needed to get rid of one or two strikers before I could sign him and, while all that was going on, Howard Kendall came in and nicked him from under our noses and took him to Everton; fair play to Howard and Everton for being aware enough to have taken him while we were sorting our own house out at United.

He scored 40 goals in his one season at Goodison before his move to Barcelona, so they did well out of him. It nearly happened for us but we couldn’t get it done in time.

We were in the 1985 FA Cup Final and his contract was up at Filbert Street. It was a transfer we were looking to get done in that summer. But Howard got wind of it and he sold Andy Gray and quickly bought Lineker. Nowadays we would never have lost him because the bigger clubs like United are so powerful we would have just bought him and offloaded the others at our leisure. But in those days even United had to wheel and deal, which is what cost us.

Who knows, if we had have signed Lineker we might just have won the league. Frank Stapleton and Mark Hughes were great for me, but we just needed someone with that extra pace who was capable of banging in 25 or 30 goals a season like Liverpool had with Ian Rush. Unfortunately it is a case of what might have been.

JOHN BARNWELL

Managed: Peterborough United (1977–1978); Wolverhampton Wanderers (1978–1982); AEK Athens (1983–1984); Notts County (1987–1988); Walsall (1989–1990); Northampton Town (1993–1994)

MY BIG DEAL

Emlyn Hughes: Liverpool to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £90,000 in 1979

I could have nominated Andy Gray as he was comfortably my ‘biggest’ signing in terms of money at just shy of £1.5m. Andy paid us back in his first season with a winning goal in the 1980 League Cup Final and sixth place in the league to see us through to the UEFA Cup. But Emlyn shades it on the value for money aspect. Admittedly he was at the opposite end of his career to Andy and was winding down what had already been a spectacularly successful career, but for the two seasons he was with us Emlyn was superb and gave the team everything I had wanted and more.

Both Andy and Emlyn were strong characters and each had a significant effect in the dressing room and on the pitch in terms of leadership and influence, especially Emlyn with the winning mentality he was bringing from his trophy-laden spell at Liverpool.

I actually tried to sign Roy McFarland initially and met him twice but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to leave Derby so after our second meeting I moved on and the Emlyn deal happened pretty quickly, over a few days. I spoke to Bill Shankly about him so I knew what I was getting. Shankly felt Emlyn still had another couple of years in him and told me, ‘He won’t let you down.’ I knew he was available because there were rumours he wasn’t happy at being switched between defence and midfield, and Alan Hansen was coming through with Phil Thompson there too, so there appeared to be