Johnny Phillips: Trevor Francis turned defence into attack with Warhurst
Tributes have come from far and wide this week for the man dubbed ‘the first million pound footballer’. Trevor Francis’s passing at the age of 69 leaves a huge hole in the Midlands football landscape where he excelled at Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest. His illustrious playing career at home and abroad has been well documented in the last few days, and he went on to enjoy 15 years in management, famously taking Blues to a League Cup final in 2001.
But there is one spell of his career, when he was in a transitional period, that’ll I’ll always remember with fondness. Player-Managers are no longer part of the English game but they were more commonplace in the 1990s. As player-manager of Sheffield Wednesday during the 1992/93 season, Francis oversaw one of English football’s unlikeliest transformations.
When he converted reserve centre-back Paul Warhurst into a striker during the second half of the that campaign, the relatively unknown youngster’s goals propelled the team to two cup finals and earned him a shock England call-up.
Warhurst was an unassuming hero, his achievements delighting fans and neutrals alike. But ultimately, it was a tale that ended with a sense of regret at what might have been.
Aged 21, he was signed by newly-promoted Wednesday from Oldham Athletic for the start of the 1991/92 season. Warhurst became the understudy to the established pairing of Nigel Pearson and Peter Shirtliff in the heart of defence.
Wednesday finished an impressive third that season. Shortly into the following campaign star striker David Hirst got injured. With forward Paul Williams recently sold, Francis dropped his selection bombshell. Warhurst was picked up front alongside new signing Mark Bright for a league match at Nottingham Forest in September, with Gordon Watson dropped. “When I first mentioned it to him he thought it was a bit of a joke,” said Francis at the time. But Warhurst scored in a 2-1 win.
