Andy Carroll handed in a transfer request after they turned down Liverpool's £30 million bid. Liverpool confirmed that Carroll would wear the number 9 jersey previously worn by Fernando Torres, who left Anfield for Chelsea on the same evening for £50 million. The transfer made Carroll the eighth overall most expensive footballer at the time, and also the most expensive British footballer of all time. He also became the second most expensive footballer playing for a British club, after Torres. Due to an injury that was sustained while with Newcastle, however, it was announced that Carroll would have to wait some time
Progression of the British football transfer fee record four years later Denis Law joined Torino in the first £100,000 transaction involving a British club. The 1970s saw a rapid increase in transfer fees. Martin Peters became the first £200,000 player in 1970, but by 1977 Kevin Keegan's move to West Germany's Hamburger SV had taken the record to £500,000. In January 1979 David Mills became the first player to be purchased for £500,000 by a British club, but just one month later Nottingham Forest paid twice that amount to acquire Birmingham City's Trevor Francis. In 1981 Bryan Robson cost Manchester United £1,500,000, but fees paid by British clubs