We delve deep into The British Newspaper Archive to look at cuttings that shed light on West Ham United’s history...
These days, the Transfer Window has become an industry, with broadcasters and social media ‘in the knows’ cashing in on information fed and leaked to them by agents, players and clubs.
Sky Sports News branded Deadline Day with the colour yellow and presenters Jim White and Natalie Sawyer have become synonymous with an afternoon full of ‘breaking news’ from training grounds up and down the country.
More recently, X (formerly Twitter) has become the go-to channel for supporters desperate to know which potential star their club is set to sign, and which unwanted players are to be sold.
Of course, transfers themselves are nothing new, with the Football Association recognising professionalism and introducing player registration in 1885. Initially, players could move freely at the end of each season and register for a new club. However, by the mid-1890s a new ‘retain-and-transfer’ system had been put in place, meaning clubs retained a player’s registration until a fee was paid by another club to release them and allow them to ‘transfer’ to the new club.
This pretty much remained the system until 1995, when Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman successfully challenged it to enable players to transfer their registration without a fee being paid between clubs at the end of their contracts.
Players have been transferring for 140 years, then, and despite the rivalry between the two London clubs, moves between West Ham United and Chelsea have been taking place for well over a century.
One player who transferred from West Ham to Chelsea, and then back to West Ham, was the prolific striker George Hilsdon.