Trevor Francis, former Wednesday striker and then manager, has passed away at the age of 69.
Former England international Francis, who became Britain’s first £1m footballer when he joined Nottingham Forest from Birmingham in 1979, died today after suffering a heart attack in Spain.
A statement released on behalf of his family said: “This has come as a huge shock to everybody. We are all very upset.
“He was a legendary footballer but he was also an extremely nice person.”
Trevor moved to Hillsborough when he was signed by then manager Ron Atkinson in 1990 and went on to play a major part in our successes in the nineties … both as player and then manager.
‘Tricky Trev’, as he became known by Wednesday fans, was a key member of the squad when we clinched promotion back to the old division one in the 1990-1991 campaign and was a non-playing substitute in the famous 1-0 League Cup final win over Manchester United at Wembley that same season.
Atkinson left the Owls after the double success to join Aston Villa and Trevor took over as player-manager, guiding Wednesday to a third-place finish in the top division in his first season in charge.
This earnt us a spot in the UEFA Cup for the following campaign and Trevor also led us to the FA Cup and League Cup finals in that 1992-93 season, the Owls losing both finals to Arsenal.
We went on to finish seventh in the league campaign and repeated that achievement in the following season.
Trevor finally retired as a player in 1994, having made 38 starts for the Owls and 51 appearances as a substitute, and was dismissed as Wednesday manager a year later after we finished 13th in the Premier League in the 1994-95 season.
He will be fondly remembered by club, players and fans as both an outstanding player and manager at Hillsborough during a highly successful period for the club and the London Owls join Wednesdayites throughout the world in sending our deepest sympathies to Trevor’s family at this sad time.
RIP Trevor.