From £1,300 to £11m: How Wanderers transfers have escalated

12:06pm Friday 4th July 2008

EIGHTY five years ago, Wanderers supporters were eagerly anticipating their first glimpse of their club-record signing.

George Lillycrop, a burly centre-forward from Gosport in Hampshire had cost the club the princely sum of £1,300 following his FA Cup triumph with Barnsley the previous season.

He made a fast start at his new club, surpassing the legendary Joe Smith in his first season by scoring 25 goals, a feat only achieved on 30 occasions in Wanderers' history.

But Lillycrop's Bolton career was interrupted by the First World War and, as such, he never quite managed to place his name among the greats.

His impressive record of 32 goals in 55 games does, however, puts him in sixth place in the list of Wanderers' all-time prolific goalscorers.

Lillycrop scored a goal for the club every 155 minutes, a total bettered only by Harold Blackmore (one ever 122 minutes), Albert Shepherd (one every 123 minutes), Andy Walker (one ever 128 minutes), Michael Ricketts (one every 133 minutes) and Jack Milsom (one every 150 minutes).

Fast forward to 2008 and Wanderers fans are once again looking forward to seeing the club's record purchase in action.

At nearly 8,500 times the price, Sweden international Johan Elmander's arrival from Toulouse is an indication of how times have changed since the more simplistic days of Lillycrop and Smith.

It is the second time in the last three years that Wanderers have broken their transfer record, though history has shown that the benchmark has not been altered with such regularity.

The club's fluctuating financial fortunes meant that previous highs - such as Len Cantello's £350,000 move from West Bromwich Albion in 1979 - stood for 15 years before it was finally surpassed by the arrival of striker Fabian De Freitas from Dutch club, Volendam.

Likewise, the £20,000 fee paid out to sign winger Bobby Langton in 1949 would only be matched again when Welshman Wyn Davies arrived at Burnden Park from Wrexham 12 years later.

How long, then, before Elmander's price tag is trumped?