Steve Daley
English footballer (born 1953)
Steve Daley (born 15 April 1953) is an English former footballer, who played as a midfielder. His English record transfer to Manchester City in 1979 was later described as "the biggest waste of money in football history". The Manchester City manager Malcolm Allison and chairman Peter Swales subsequently accused each other of inflating the fee.
Career
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Daley began his football career as an apprentice at Wolverhampton Wanderers, after arriving at the club via their feeder team Wath Wanderers based in Yorkshire. He signed professionally in 1971, and made his first-team debut later that year on 18 September, coming on as substitute in a 2–0 defeat at Newcastle United.
He won a League Cup winners medal with the club in 1974 and played in their run through to the 1972 UEFA Cup Final, scoring a vital goal in the semi-final against Ferencváros inside the first minute. That goal still holds the record for being the fastest goal ever scored in European football cup competitions. He was an ever-present in the 1976–77 season, scoring 13 goals, and a further eight the following season saw him receive an England 'B' call up. He played six times for the 'B' side during 1978, scoring twice (against Singapore and Czechoslovakia 'B').
Manchester City
In September 1979, he was transferred to Manchester City for a fee of £1,437,500 – an English record, and equivalent to £7,077,897 in 2025.
The public source identifies “Steve Daley” as english footballer (born 1953). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Steve, Daley and English.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7612336. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1979, 1971 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “Steve Daley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.