Thereafter the depression hit Cowdenbeath and
Scottish football in general and it was long after the 2nd World War before
Willie Devlin's record fee would be surpassed. Indeed it took 4 decades until Devlin's fee
was beaten in March 1966. Full-back Bobby Wilson was transferred from Cowden to
Dundee in that month for a fee of £5,000. A year later, Stan Mortenson, the
manager of Blackpool came to Central Park to watch Wilson's former full-back partner Andy
Rolland perform. However, it was Rolland's full-back partner who caught the eye and Henry
Mowbray was promptly sold to Blackpool for a £6,000 fee in April 1967.
Rolland's departure though was only delayed. In October 1967, Andy Rolland joined
Bobby Wilson in Tannadice Street by signing for Dundee United - £10,000 being the
consideration in this instance.
16 years elapsed before Rolland's record was broken
in February 1983. In that month, popular centre-forward Jim Gunner Liddle
was sold to Forfar Athletic for a fee of £15,000. Gunner's record though didn't
last long and the new record was to be a quantum leap from the realms of previous fees. In
November 1983, present Cowden boss Craig Levein was sold to Hearts in a deal which
eventually produced £40,000 for the Cowdenbeath coffers. Thus Cowden's record fee
has now stood for some 15 years. Who knows when, in the current Bosman era, Cowden will
again realise such a sum?
On the other hand though, we can also consider the
transfer fees paid out by the club. This is an area where frugality has been the watchword
for many years. However, at one time Cowden weren't afraid to buy big. In September 1921, £700
was paid over to Clyde to secure the signature of Willie Devlin. Then when Cowden
won promotion in 1924, the cheque book was brought out to facilitate the move of
Motherwell's highly regarded inside-man Willie Rankin to Central Park for £1,000.
A fee later matched twice in the same season to bring back Willie Paterson from Derby
County and acquire inside-forward Andy Rankine from Aberdeen.
It took over 40 years for Cowden to go any further
in the transfer stakes. It was June 1957 when a £1,500 cheque was handed over to
Forfar Athletic in exchange for forward Albert Craig. The biscuit tin then was left
virtually untroubled until Cowden found themselves in the 1st Division in
1970/71 when some serious Christmas shopping was undertaken in December 1970. Firstly,
Airdrie's big, bustling centre-forward Davie Marshall was signed in a £3,000
deal and then a few days later Cowden paid over £5,000 to Forfar Athletic to sign
ex-Rangers full-back Davie Cairns.
After this spending spree the cheque book was
firmly locked away again for a couple of decades to ease the strain on Bank clearing
systems. In November 1990 though £8,500 was paid to Meadowbank to sign their
combative midfielder Neil Irvine. Then in August 1992, the current record was
established via a rather back door method. Roddy Grant was transferred by St Johnstone to
Dunfermline. As a consequence St Johnstone owed Cowden a further £12,000 as a
clause in the original transfer agreement provided that Cowden would receive a percentage
of any future fees paid for Roddy. Unfortunately, the Saints board pulled a fast one
getting Cowden to accept the transfer of the non-combative midfielder Iain Lee in
lieu of the cash – this proved to be one of the worst deals ever foisted on Cowden.
Lee proved both ineffective and deeply unpopular with the fans. Traumatised by this
transfer travesty the Cowdenbeath cheque book was walled up in a secret room in the new
Alex Menzies Stand never to see the light of day again.
Finally, a wee note to Gordon McDougall - back in
1924 our record fee was 1/6th of the world transfer fee record thus to match
this we should be looking at £3,500,000 fees when trying to sign players nowadays. By the
same token Willie Devlin would be worth £14,700,000 in the current transfer market!
We're always on the lookout for your comments or questions on Cowden games from the past. Where possible, Dr O' Rak will come up with an answer to your Cowden related trivia. If you have any Cowden trivia that you would like researched, drop an email to webmaster@blue-brazil.co.uk
When
you follow a club such as Cowdenbeath that has failed
to deliver regular cup or championship glory, it
is easy to forget how good the good times were and
how really bad things have got. Our very
own club historian Dr O'Rak is always there in your
time of need to give you that piece of well-researched
information which put the LEG in LEGEND.
