Fee for Smith still a Record

The £80,000 paid by Hereford United, fifteen years ago, remains the highest transfer fee the club has ever spent.

It was in the summer of 1994 that Dean Smith moved to Edgar Street from Walsall. He stayed for three seasons making some 117 league appearances for the club and scoring some 19 league goals.

Smith was described as a 'vastly experienced defender who was good in the air'. He was given the captains armband by then manager Greg Downs.

The transfer money for Smith had come from a sell-on clause agreed when Darren Peacock was sold to Queens Park Rangers in December 1990. The original fee was around £200,000 but when Peacock moved to Newcastle, at that time managed by Kevin Keegan, in spring 1994 Hereford United received around £250,000 from the £2,700,000 deal.

The aggregate income from Peacock of about £450,000 has never been surpassed by any other sale by Hereford United although Graham Turner had hoped that the sale of Lionel Ainsworth to Watford might have beaten it.

Back to that £80,000 fee for Dean Smith in 1994.

Current manager John Trewick has hinted that he might be prepared to pay a fee for a striker. £80,000 wouldn't go far so perhaps, just perhaps, the club record could be broken if he finds the right player and, more importantly, if chairman Graham Turner agrees.

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