THOUGH something like £50,000 better off after Denis Law's transfer to Manchester City, Town vowed they were not in a hurry to go spending on new recruits.
"We're going to take our time. There's to be no mad rush to buy new players before the season is out," said Town chairman Stephen Lister, answering a volley of pressmen's questions after the Law deal had been signed in the Leeds Road boardroom at 8.30pm on Tuesday, March 15.
The exact nature of the amount involved was not disclosed, but spokesmen for the two clubs confirmed it was "well up" on the £45,000 that Manchester United paid for Sheffield Wednesday's Albert Quixall in September 1958.
Law, who assumed the mantle of Britain's costliest footballer, was set to turn out against Leeds United in his first game as a City player.
When asked, "How did it feel to be a record-fee player?" Law said: "No different, no different at all. But I'm happy it's all over and settled. I'm happy to be joining Manchester City."
The 20-year-old Aberdeen fisherman's son, who was one of Town's schoolboy discoveries, didn't move to the bright lights of London, after all.
Arsenal, hotly fancied to win the soccer transfer deadline race for Law's signature right up to the last moment, dropped out after discovering that even the offer of 25-year-old Scottish international David Herd, plus cash, fell short of the financial lengths to which the Maine Road club were prepared to go.
And the same thing applied to Chelsea whose manager, Ted Drake, made an afternoon visit to Leeds Road to place his club's player-plus-cash offer on the director's table, while West Bromwich Albion had also been in the hunt.
