Leeds United's 'big money' raid on Sheffield United would have the yellow tie brigade salivating

In the last few transfer windows, sums in the tens of millions bought bang-average players.

There are footballers who sign for millions and never feature for their new clubs, then get shipped out on loan when the following window opens and, all the time, tv presenters and pundits are salivating down their yellow neck ties.

Leeds United’s 1967/68 season transfer activity under Don Revie would have been right up their street.

It was no secret that early on in the campaign, Revie was out to bolster his attack.

He had seen his side win just one of their opening four league games and they had failed to score in defeats at Old Trafford and Molineux.

Tabloid speculation, in the form of a few column inches, was rife and the scribes were hedging their bets as to where the money would go.

The Sunday People on September 3 reported that the West Bromwich Albion winger, Clive Clarke was on his way to Elland Road.

According to the newspaper, Revie had seen a £70,000 bid rejected for Clarke.

The bid had unsettled the player who was keen for the deal to happen and Leeds would return with a revised offer.

It also claimed that members of Revie’s backroom team had watched Hull City’s Chris Chilton play the day before, in a 1-0 home defeat to Blackpool, and he would also be signing for United. However, neither deal materialised. On Friday, September 22 1967, a time when football very much belonged to the working class, Leeds United splashed out a club-record sum of £100,000 to secure the services of centre-forward Mick Jones from Sheffield United.

There was no television fanfare to showcase the transfer and there were no internet platforms or radio phone-ins to debate the signing. All we had was joy in the West of Yorkshire and tears in the South, where rumours were rife that the Sheffield United manager, John Harris, was to resign in protest at the sale of his number nine who had joined the Bramall Lane ground staff in 1961.

One newspaper headline screamed ‘The bewildering world of big money soccer’; as Leeds became only the fourth English club to write a six-figure cheque. The outfit at Old Trafford had signed Denis Law from Torino for £116,000 which was the record sum paid out, whilst Alan Ball had moved from Blackpool to Everton for £110,000 and Chelsea had forked out £100,000 for the services of Tony Hateley from Aston Villa.

After sealing the deal for the 22-year-old England striker, Revie confessed that he’d been chasing Jones, who had scored for Sheffield United against Leeds in February 1966, for around 12 months but the Blades had been unwilling to sell.

“He has been top of my list of centre-forwards for a long time,” said Revie. “He is a goal-getter and that is what we want. We have been missing chances and Mick is the man to put them in.”

Before the ink had dried on the transfer forms, Jones was on his way to Ilkley to meet up with his new team-mates before making his debut the following day at home to Leicester.

He told the media: “I have been bewildered all week. I cannot say that I am glad to leave Sheffield because I’m not, but it was too good an offer to refuse.” A condition of the deal was that Jones left his Sheffield home and moved to Leeds as soon as possible.

In his biography, The Life and Times of Mick Jones, the striker confessed that the attitude and aspiration at Elland Road was incredible. He knew he had been brought in to score goals but there were other side to his game that helped the team.

Jones went on to become a legend at Elland Road and the partnership he forged with Allan Clarke, who signed in the summer of 1969, meant the pairing became the most feared strike force in Europe. In total, the striker made 312 appearances for Leeds United and weighed in with 111 goals.

He sits seventh in the clubs all-time goal-scoring charts behind Peter Lorimer, John Charles, Allan Clarke, Tom Jennings, Billy Bremner and John Giles. It makes you wonder what the great man would cost in today’s transfer market.

Mick Jones would be trending on Twitter, obviously, and can you imagine the heightened euphoria at Sky Sports News?