Trevor Francis Arrives

On this day (4 September) in 1981 Manchester City signed Trevor Francis from Nottingham Forest. The transfer meant that the Blues were the first English side to sign three separate £1m or £1m+ players. Peter Swales often boasted of this point (and did so in an interview I did with him years later). The earlier £1m/£1m+ men were Steve Daley and Kevin Reeves.

I’ve interviewed John Bond, Trevor Francis and Peter Swales specifically about this transfer over the years. Subscribers can listen to my Bond interview (see below for details):

Here’s the John Bond interview:

The story of Trevor Francis’ debut against Stoke is here:

Here’s an article quoting Mike Doyle, who by this time was a Stoke player, about Francis: