In February 1979 Trevor Francis made the move from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest and in doing so became the first player in British transfer history to break the £1million barrier.
Since then, that record has been broken 23 times, 15 of which have been by British players.
There was a steady increase in the price of players for the decade which followed Francis’ move, but the introduction of the Premier League re-wrote the rules on transfer fees.
In recent times we have seen crazy money being thrown about which has resulted in the current record, set back in 2018, break the £100m mark when Philippe Coutinho moved from Liverpool to Barcelona for a simply staggering £105m.
But this gallery will just look at the British players who have become the most expensive player in the British Isles, but where will Harry Maguire end up on this list?
And we start 40 years ago with a certain Steve Daley…
Steve Daley
Steve Daley got the ball rolling following Francis’ barrier-breaking transfer fee by moving from Wolves to Man City just seven months later for £1.45m. However, he struggled at Maine Road, was ridiculed by fans, and left after just two years.
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Andy Gray
But Daley’s record did not last long. In the same month of 1979, Andy Gray moved from Aston Villa to Wolves for just £19,000 more. He spent four years at the club before being sold to Everton and then eventually ending up back at Villa.
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Bryan Robson
We then had to wait until October 1981 for the next transfer record when Bryan Robson signed for Manchester United from West Brom for £1.5m. He spent his best years at Old Trafford, eventually leaving for Middlesbrough in 1994 at the tail end of his career.
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Ray Wilkins
It was another Manchester United player who took the record away from Robson in 1984 when he moved to Milan for what was reported as the same price as Robson but is still regarded as a transfer record.
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Mark Hughes
Two years later came Mark Hughes, who followed in Wilkins’ footsteps by moving from Old Trafford to a club on the continent. The Welshman’s transfer to Barcelona was worth £2.3m, but he was quickly loaned out to Bayern Munich and found himself back at United just three years later.
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Ian Rush
The Welsh theme continued the following summer when Liverpool legend Ian Rush moved to Italian giants Juventus for £3.2m. However, Rush was immediately loaned back to the Reds for the 1987/88 season and eventually bought back permanently in 1988.
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Chris Waddle
The summer before Italia ’90 Marseille smashed the British transfer record by purchasing Chris Waddle from Tottenham for £4.25m. The winger spent three years in France, scoring 27 goals and providing 15 assists in 137 games.
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David Platt
David Platt put his name in the history books in 1991 when he made the switch from Aston Villa to Bari for £5.5m. He would go on to also play for two more Italian clubs – Juventus and Sampdoria.
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Trevor Steven
The only person to break or equal the record for a British transfer fee in a deal which didn’t involve an English club is Trevor Steven. He moved from Rangers to Marseille for £5.5m just a month after Platt linked up with Bari.
But Stevens scored just three times in 34 games for the French side and found himself back in Glasgow the following summer.
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Paul Gascoigne
There was a theme in the late 80s and 90s which involved English players moving to Serie A for big money. Paul Gascoigne was no different. He also equaled the record 12 months later when he moved to Lazio from Spurs for £5.5m where he would spend three seasons.
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Andy Cole
As we move into the era of the Premier League, Andy Cole became the record signing in British football history when he moved to Manchester United from Newcastle for £7m.
It proved to be the right move as Cole netted 120 times for the Red Devils and won five Premier League titles.
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Stan Collymore
Then after Dennis Bergkamp broke Cole’s record when he moved to Arsenal for £7.5m, Stan Collymore went to Liverpool from Nottingham Forest for £8.5m.
Collymore scored 32 times in 76 appearances for the Reds across what was a successful spell.
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Alan Shearer
The British transfer record as then smashed like never before when Alan Shearer moved to Newcastle from Blackburn. It nearly doubled overnight when Collymore’s previous record of £8.5m was made to look minuscule as the Geordie went for a huge £15m.
He would go on to score 181 goals in 369 games for the Toon Army and in doing so also break the Premier League goalscoring record with 260 – a feat which still stands today.
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Rio Ferdinand
There was then a long wait, seven years in fact, before another British player would become the record signing. Nicolas Anelka and Juan Sebastian Veron both re-wrote history before Rio Ferdinand was bought by Sir Alex Ferguson and Man United for £29.1m.
Ferdinand would make 455 appearances across 12 years at the club.
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Gareth Bale
The gap between Ferdinand and the next British player to break the record was over a decade as Andriy Shevchenko, Robinho and Cristiano Ronaldo all superseded one another as the priciest player the British isles had seen.
And then in 2013, Gareth Bale made the move from Spurs to Real Madrid for an eye-watering £85.3m. He has gone on to 14 trophies at Madrid including four Champions Leagues and as a result, could be considered the most successful British export in history.
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