Football's Pioneers: Steve Bloomer

The rumours and gossip of transfer speculation are nothing new. In March 1906, the most talked about transfer in English football finally happened. Derby County’s goal-scoring forward Bloomer was transferred to Middlesbrough. 

This was not a deal between football heavyweights. Neither club had a league championship or an FA Cup win to its name. Indeed, both were in danger of relegation when the transfer took place. They were struggling sides, anxious to retain their positions in the top division, and to avoid sinking into the ‘Second League’, a concern at least as significant to Edwardian clubs as it is today.    

Middlesbrough had first made an approach for Bloomer in February 1905. The Derby board resisted. By the time Bloomer broke both the England appearance and goalscoring record in the draw with Ireland at the end of the month, Middlesbrough had another target.

That was Sunderland’s equally prolific, Alf Common. As the first ever £1,000 transfer, Middlesbrough’s acquisition of Common generated considerable publicity and controversy. For some, it underlined the commercial vulgarity and immorality of professional football.

Even established cheerleaders of league football, such as the Manchester weekly Athletic News, found it hard to defend. Surely, it suggested to its readers: ‘The Second Division would be more honourable than retention of place by purchase’.

Equally incensed, the FA tried to impose a transfer limit of £350, though clubs easily evaded it when it came into operation in 1908 and it only lasted a few months. 

Bloomer’s transfer around a year later was equally high-profile and was just as contentious. Derby supporters were understandably unhappy that a player who had been County’s leading goalscorer for the previous 13 seasons was being sold to a rival.

Bloomer, after all, was now more than an ordinary player. He had become an idol on the terraces and a focus for pride in the city itself. There was some suspicion over the deal, particularly over how Middlesbrough could afford another large transfer fee. But ultimately the actions of the Teesside club were vindicated when Bloomer scored six goals in nine games to help them escape the drop. 

At first, Bloomer continued to score freely at Middlesbrough. He was the club’s leading goalscorer with 20 in 1906/07 and joint top with 12 the following season. By now he was in his mid-30s, however, no longer an England international and was neither as fit nor as fast as in the early part of his career.

Some journalists observed an unusual disinterest in his play and, although he always claimed to have been happy at Middlesbrough, it was no surprise when he returned to the Baseball Ground in 1910.

As captain and inspiration on the field and off it, Bloomer helped Derby gain promotion to the top flight in 1911/12, the only championship medal he ever won in first-class football. He retired in 1914 at 40 years old and is still remembered with affection by Derby fans as ‘Our Steve’.