The nation ground to a halt with the railway workers and lorry drivers on strike, schools closed, inflation soared, the Government slumped in the polls and football gorged on a frenzy of spending.
This was February 1979 and the dog end of the miserable Winter of Discontent, when Nottingham Forest paid Birmingham City £1.18million for Trevor Francis little more than a month after West Bromwich Albion had been first to break the £500,000 barrier.
Ron Atkinson was the Albion boss who signed David Mills from Middlesbrough and then confessed he had no idea where he might fit into his vibrant attacking team.
Brian Clough shattered the Mills record to sign Francis, a lightning-quick striker he had been chasing for eight years, who scored the goal to win Forest the European Cup before the end of the season.
Goals cost money and it was ever thus. Alf Common was the first footballer sold for £1,000 from Sunderland to Middlesbrough in 1905, to help Boro escape relegation, which they did.
In February 1979, the nation ground to a halt amid high inflation, teacher strikes, schools closed and the Government slumping in the polls as football gorged on a frenzy of spending
David Jack became the first star to cost £10,000 when Arsenal bought him back in 1928
David Jack, scorer for Bolton in the first FA Cup final at Wembley, was first to cost £10,000 when Arsenal bought him in 1928. The next 10-fold increase took 34 years with the hiatus for the Second World War slowing the process.
Manchester United were the first British club to pay a six-figure sum when they bought Denis Law from Torino for £115,000, eight months after Tottenham agreed a fee of £99,999 for Jimmy Greaves from AC Milan, reluctant to burden him with the historic price tag.
These were days when a Ford Anglia car cost £600 and petrol 25 pence a gallon.
Allan Clarke, another goal ace of the era, was the first player to cost £150,000 moving from Fulham to Leicester, and broke the record again, 12 months later, when he joined Leeds for £165,000 in 1969.
Martin Peters, Alan Ball, David Nish and Bob Latchford stretched the record through the glam-rock 70s before Mills and Francis sparked their inflationary boom.
Also in 1979, Manchester City boss Malcolm Allison paid £1,437,500 for Steve Daley from Wolves who, four days later, spent £1,469,000 on Andy Gray from Aston Villa. His header won Wolves the League Cup in 1980, their last major trophy.
Manchester United were the first to spend…