On February 9th, 1979, Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest welcomed Trevor Francis to the City Ground in what was the first seven-figure transfer in British football history.

Forty years down the line, you’d struggle to afford two week’s wages for some of the world’s best with a million quid at hand. A once groundbreaking sum of money has crumbled into loose change and its value and prestige back in 1979 has been somewhat belittled by the riches of modern football.

However, Francis’ move from Birmingham City four decades ago still holds significant importance to this day and, thus, remains a defining moment in the history of football. And whilst the current British transfer record stands more than 100 times superior; only a handful of transfers are worthy of comparing to the stature and appeal of that £1million. Here are a few that give it a run for its money:

Britain’s first £1million black footballer

In August 1981, 20-year-old Justin Fashanu became the first black football player to head the seven figure transfer fee, emptying Brian Clough’s transfer kitty once more as a result of an impressive start to his professional career at Norwich, where he scored 40 goals in 103 appearances for the Canaries.

Unfortunately, his confidence both on and off the pitch were desecrated due to the incongruous lifestyle and footballing demands of Clough, who later barred him from training with Forest after discovering his homosexuality.

The intended replacement for Trevor Francis failed to make his mark at the City Ground and was sold on to local rivals Notts County less than 18 months later for just £150,000.

Britain’s first £1million teenager

After Fashanu’s Forest arrival in ’81 came just six months after he turned 20, how long would it be before the £1million price tag would claim its first teenage protégé? Months? A year or two at most? Try thirteen years.

Crystal Palace completed the signing of Watford striker Bruce Dyer a month short of his nineteenth birthday for a fee of £1.1million in March 1994. A hot prospect at the time, Dyer took some time to live up to his unrivalled billing, netting a single league goal in 27 games during his first season and a half at Selhurst Park.

Following their relegation to the First Division in 1995, the front man found his form in the second tier, playing an integral part in Palace’s return to the top flight under Steve Coppell at the second time of asking, finishing top scorer with 18 goals in the 1996-97 campaign.

His eight goal haul the season after wasn’t enough to maintain Palace’s top flight status for a second year, however, as all three promoted teams suffered relegation; including Barnsley, the club who secured the £700,000 signing of Dyer months later.

Britain’s first £2million player

Despite Dyer’s record-breaking teenage transfer in ’94, momentous million pound moves were a thing of the past as the once unfamiliar seven figure signing was becoming an increasingly common occurrence.

In May 1986, Terry Venables secured the services of Mark Hughes at Barcelona for a hefty sum of £2.3million from Manchester United, sweeping aside the Red Devils’ current transfer record of £1.5million received courtesy of AC Milan for Ray Wilkins two years prior.

Hughes spent a largely underwhelming season at Camp Nou before being loaned out to Bayern Munich the subsequent season. The Welshman rediscovered his mojo in Munich alongside the likes of Lothar Matthaus and Andreas Brehme and infamously played twice in one day during his stint in Germany, making a substitute appearance in a cup game against Borussia Monchengladbach hours after featuring in a Euro 1988 qualifier between Wales and Czechoslovakia in Prague on November 11th 1987.

Six months on, he returned to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United for a then club record fee of £1.8million.

Britain’s first £10million player

The recurring theme across the aforementioned records is of players that promised so much but produced substandard results for their expectant investors. In this case, however, the story could not be more different.

On July 30th 1996, the stars aligned as Newcastle-born Alan Shearer, joined his hometown club, managed by his childhood hero, Kevin Keegan, for a world record-breaking £15million from Blackburn. Almost doubling the previous £8,500,000 spent by Liverpool on Stan Collymore in 1995, a record-smashing feat Shearer became all too familiar with during his time on Tyneside.

Ten seasons, 303 matches and 148 goals later, Shearer had well and truly carved his name into the Newcastle United and Premier League history books. An eyebrow-raising switch that proved to be a bargain for a man that remains a remarkable 52 goals ahead of second-placed Wayne Rooney in the Premier League’s all time top scorers chart.

Britain’s first £1million non-league player

Another forward whose name sits at the summit of a Premier League goal-scoring record is Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. In 2015, he became the first player to score in 11 successive Premier League fixtures during the Foxes’ title winning season; a remarkable repayment to say the least for a man who played non-league football up until the age of 25.

Leicester completed the £1million capture of Fleetwood Town’s talisman on May 17th 2012 after the sought after striker bagged 31 times as the Fisherman coasted to the Conference title. The first of three titles in five years for Vardy, the second was the Championship trophy in 2013-14, two years before the unimaginable became a reality.

Less than four years on from non-league football, Vardy contributed 24 goals to help Leicester City lift the Premier League trophy against all odds. Evidence that, even amidst the multi-billion pound transfer windows of today, one million pound can still go a long way in contemporary football.

Britain’s first £100million player

In January 2018, English football got its first taste of nine figures when Liverpool’s midfield maestro Philippe Coutinho joined Barcelona for an initial £105million, a transfer that placed the Brazilian third in the most expensive football transfers of all time.

In his first season in Spain, Coutinho has played 38 times, scoring 12 times, and although an injury affected start to life at Barca may reflect the mediocrity of his performance wrongly, it does reflect a significantly reduced level of expectation for such extortionately priced players in the modern era, thus devaluing money in football?

And whilst a Premier League team is yet to spend in excess of £100million, its increasing inevitability only epitomises the extent of football’s change since 1979, but fortunately, the importance of the sport’s first million pound man in Britain and its rightful place in football history still remains four decades on.