Unbelievable: Trevor Francis had a really nice, dry sense of humour

When Brian Clough signed Trevor Francis for Nottingham Forest for £1m, it was a big big statement

Trevor Francis coming to Nottingham Forest in 1979 was a big statement by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. They had been used to making big statements in the previous couple of years. The year we got promotion, along comes Larry Lloyd; a big player at Liverpool, went to Coventry and we were able to persuade him to drop down a division. Within five or six games of promotion, Peter Shilton becomes a massive signing for us. I think he was the most expensive goalkeeper in the world at the time, £275,000 or thereabouts. So Clough and Taylor had been making statements alright. But then when you go £1m for a player, breaking the British transfer record in such major fashion? A big, big statement.

So Trevor arrives. I don’t think he is finished signing the contracts and someone asks Trevor: “When do you expect to play?” Brian Clough intercepts: “When I pick him.”

A million-pound player. I suppose probably, jokingly, the first thing we are thinking about is: “I wonder how much he is getting?” More genuinely, Trevor was already a big name in the game. As a 16-year-old he had scored four times for Birmingham City. He had a reputation. So this was another big boost to all of us; here is another class player coming in. Of course, you start to worry about whether he takes your position because he is a forward-thinking player but at the end of the day, this guy is going to improve Nottingham Forest’s chances of winning things.

Trevor was absolutely electric. He had blinding pace. He wouldn’t have been your archetypal centre-forward in terms of an Alan Shearer, able to hold the ball up, but he could turn defenders any way. He was so sharp, getting away from defenders over half a yard then getting shots away. And he could score goals. He scored big goals for us, notably in the European Cup final of course but the next year in the quarter-final and semi-final, Dynamo Berlin and Ajax, he did the same. He was a proper player.

I have heard some people say Trevor was humble. I am not so sure the first thought about Trevor was that he was humble. He had a really nice, dry sense of humour. He was like a second-year schoolboy at Eton in the way he laughed. I liked his sense of humour – it could sometimes be cutting but I really enjoyed it. Trevor was exceptionally good company. Helen, his wife, was a major player in his life as well; the two of them were the forerunners to Posh and Becks.

Trevor got the same treatment from Clough as we all got. The transfer fee didn’t matter. I have a memory of him not being eligible for our first league game after he signed and Cloughie telling him to make the tea for all of us. I think Trevor’s first game might even have been for the second or third team but Cloughie certainly told him, “These lads are here earning your living today” as he was sent to make the half-time tea.

The European Cup final goal against Malmö impacted him, absolutely. As it would do. You have just scored the winning goal in the European Cup final. A career you thought had a decent bounce about it has just gone on to a completely different level. Trevor would have been the first one to admit it was the making of him. It cemented his place on the big stage and helped promote his England chances – he ended up with 50-odd caps. With the pace he possessed, he might have been disappointed he didn’t get a few more.

I got on really well with Trevor. He asked me to speak at Helen’s funeral. We last spoke about three months ago, just on the phone briefly, when I was putting Trevor in touch with someone else. I was in pretty regular contact with him over the last few years. He was a couple of years younger than myself, a year younger than John Robertson and you’d never think Trevor would be among the first in the team to leave this earth. It is really sad that a brilliant, brilliant player has gone from us.