It was probably a shock to Liverpool when I told them I wanted to leave the club, in the winter of 1983, though what happened next showed how they were always looking ahead from their position at the top of British football. They always had the next piece in the puzzle.
I had two years of my contract to run when I approached them to say my wife was having to leave the UK because of an inheritance issue and that I would need to go. I remember Chelsea trying to find a way to capitalise a few months later, on the January night we beat Newcastle United 4-0 in an FA Cup tie.