Trevor Francis coming to Nottingham Forest in 1979 was a big statement by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. They had been used to making big statements in the previous couple of years. The year we got promotion, along comes Larry Lloyd; a big player at Liverpool, went to Coventry and we were able to persuade him to drop down a division. Within five or six games of promotion, Peter Shilton becomes a massive signing for us. I think he was the most expensive goalkeeper in the world at the time, £275,000 or thereabouts. So Clough and Taylor had been making statements alright. But then when you go £1m for a player, breaking the British transfer record in such major fashion? A big, big statement.
So Trevor arrives. I don’t think he is finished signing the contracts and someone asks Trevor: “When do you expect to play?” Brian Clough intercepts: “When I pick him.”
A million-pound player. I suppose probably, jokingly, the first thing we are thinking about is: “I wonder how much he is getting?” More genuinely, Trevor was already a big name in the game. As a 16-year-old he had scored four times for Birmingham City. He had a reputation. So this was another big boost to all of us; here is another class player coming in. Of course, you start to worry about whether he takes your position because he is a forward-thinking player but at the end of the day, this guy is going to improve Nottingham Forest’s chances of winning things.
Trevor was absolutely electric. He had blinding pace. He wouldn’t have been your archetypal centre-forward in terms of an Alan Shearer, able to hold the ball up, but he could turn defenders any way. He was so sharp, getting away from defenders over half a yard then getting shots away. And he could score goals. He
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