Didn't another talented Irish man leave Oakwell for Aston Vanilla?

Back in the 50's

 

Yes but he was from the other side of the border. We signed Danny Blanchflower from Glentoran in 1949 and then he moved on to Villa two years later for £15,000. I wonder what the BBS thought of that then?

 

How much would that be do you reckon in football money these days? 15,000?

 

A hell of a lot. when we sold Tommy Taylor in 1953 for £29,999 that was the record transfer fee, £60M in todays (football) money.

 

How much do you think we would have accepted today though? Haha We'd have took 6 I reckon!

 

You're probably right....

 

It probably crashed. I think it was hosted on a Steam pit-head winding machine in those days.

 

Parrss the hot milk please!

 

Danny left us for Villa when he was 25 years old and went on to captain the glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur side of the early sixties, winning many caps for Northern Ireland. I'm sure that he owed a lot to the training and coaching that he got at Oakwell and was forever grateful for the start that we gave him in English football.

As an aside, he famously told Eamonn Andrews where to go when they tried to get him on This is Your Life. Danny took one look at the red book, muttered a polite no thanks and scuttled off, and this was a live show. That was the kind of maverick that he was. Great footballer and a great journalist afterwards.

 

I am not sure that he would have owned up to the benefits of our coaching. The story I heard was that the players were not allowed to train with a ball as the theory was it made them hungrier for it on a Saturday afternoon. Blanchflower objected to this and was this transferred to Vanilla who perhaps had more enlightened theories on training.

 

Not quite as one or two transfers had already broken the £30K threshold. The first £30K transfer was in 1950, Trevor Ford from Villa to Sunderland. Taylor left Oakwell in '53 by which time Jackie Sewell had gone from Notts Co to the Owls for £34.5K. Nevertheless, £30K transfers were still a rarity and put a lot of pressure on the player. So much so, Matt Busby negotiated a £29,999 transfer for Tommy and gave the Oakwell tea lady a quid so, one way or another £30K had made its way to Oakwell!!

 

That's right. Also when he was sold he travelled to a hotel in Derby (I think) with Joe Richards and was made to sit in the
kitchen with the chauffeur while Joe did the business in the dining room.