Toshack leaves Liverpool

Thursday, November 21 – 1974
Jimmy Bloomfield yesterday did more than half a million pounds worth of transfer business – and was then locked out of the Football League HQ.
The Leicester boss sold England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to Stoke for a record £340,000 and the dashed to Lytham St. Annes to sign Welsh star John Toshack from Liverpool in a £160,000 deal.
Both transfers went through minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline for the players to be available for their new clubs on Saturday.
While the Toshack deal was being completed reporters and photographers were forced to wait outside the League offices.
And Bloomfield and Toshack were told they’d have to conduct a Press conference in the driveway. When they finished they found the League had locked their doors for the night. Bloomfield had to climb on a parapet and hammer on a window to attract attention before being let in again.
he said: “I regard John as one of the best headers of a ball in the country and I’m looking to him to score a lot of goals for us.
“We’ve been short in numbers of quality players at Leicester and we’ve only had three front men available all season. Now we’ve got more depth in the squad.”
And Bloomfield is planning to spend the £180,000 profit he made on the day’s dealings. Paul Went of Portsmouth is among the men Leicester are interested in.
Toshack will line up for his Leicester against Manchester City at Maine Road tomorrow. He said: “I had to be realistic about my career. I have felt like someone who has been on the dole and out of work for ten weeks.
“Two internationals with Wales made me realise that I wanted to be playing first team football regularly.”
(Daily Mirror, 22-11-1974)