History of football in England in 1978 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. They also came second in the league in 1981 and 1982. During this period transfer fees began to rise rapidly as more money entered the game; Trevor Francis became Britain's first million-pound footballer in February 1979 when he signed for Nottingham Forest, whose full-back Viv Anderson had just become England's first black international player, a landmark which reflected the growing number of non-white players in the English game. In October 1981, Bryan Robson became England's first £1.5million footballer with his transfer from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United. However, hooliganism continued to
Transfer (association football) by an English club came in the summer of 1988, when Tottenham Hotspur signed Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle United. Within weeks of Gascoigne's transfer, the national record was broken again when Tony Cottee moved from West Ham United to Everton for £2.2 million, and again shortly afterwards when Ian Rush returned to Liverpool from Juventus for £2.8 million. In the space of two months in the summer of 1992, three transfers broke the record, all by Italian clubs: Jean-Pierre Papin transferred from Marseille to Milan, becoming the world's first ever £10 million player. Almost immediately, rivals Juventus topped that with