Blether with Brown: The first time the £100k transfer barrier was breached

In the autumn of 1968, the £100,000 transfer barrier between two Scottish clubs was breached for the first time.

That came about when Rangers — not known for their big spending at the time — paid that sum to Hibs for centre-forward Colin Stein.

It nearly wasn’t a straight cash deal, either, as the Ibrox club were trying to offload Alex Ferguson.

He was offered to the Hibees in a swap deal plus cash but the Easter Road outfit preferred to trade their star striker for hard cash.

It was a good bit of business for the Edinburgh side considering they had picked him up three years previously from junior side Armadale Thistle.

Hibs then went across to the east side of Glasgow a few days later to sign Celtic’s Joe McBride.

The fee for that trade wasn’t disclosed but was reckoned to be about £20,000.

Ferguson stayed at Ibrox another year before joining Falkirk.

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