ON THIS DAY

Spurs clinch a transfer coup when they sign one of the stars of the World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann. The German ‘Dive Bomber’ cost £2 million with the signing being completed on Alan Sugar’s yacht moored off Monte Carlo.

Well this is something that doesn’t seem to happen nowadays. A big club signs a non-league player who helps that club into an era were they dominated English football. The non-league club were Stockton Heath (who later became Warrington Town), the big club were Liverpool and the player they signed on 29th July 1959 was Roger Hunt. A little over a month later he made his debut for the Reds, scoring in the Second Division defeat of Scunthorpe at Anfield. He finished that season as club top scorer. He did the same in 1961/62 with the 41 League goals he scored in 41 League outings remaining a club record to this day. The 1961/62 season was the first of eight seasons in a row when he finished as Liverpool’s top scorer. In total he scored 285 goals in 492 league and cup appearances for Liverpool – a club record goals figure until Ian Rush came along – while his 245 goals in 404 league outings is still a club record. That goals figure includes the first-ever goal seen on the ‘Match of the Day’ programme. In his stay at Anfield – which lasted until December 1969 when he joined Bolton – he won two League Championship medals, a Second Division Division Championship medal and an FA Cup winners' medal, not forgetting a World Cup winning medal for England in 1966. And he became a genuine Liverpool legend.