Ex-Hatter Malcolm Macdonald explains just why he cost Arsenal £333,333,34 from Newcastle United in 1976

Former Luton striker Malcolm Macdonald has revealed the reasoning behind him being sold from Newcastle to Arsenal for one of the most bizarre transfer amounts recorded.

Back in 1976 the striker, who had left Town for Tyneside five years earlier, the Magpies coughing up £180,000, was then snapped up by the Gunners for the unusual sum of £333,333,34.

In an exclusive interview recently with the Luton News, Macdonald, who scored 58 goals in 101 games for the Hatters, was asked just why that had been.

He said: “Newcastle had said to me that they had received an offer from Arsenal for me, and that it had been accepted, that was 275,000 pounds and so I was given permission to go and speak with Arsenal.

“The Arsenal manager Terry Neill flew up in a private plane to Newcastle airport and I met him there.

“He got me on to the plane, down we flew, landed at Luton airport, and then we were driven to West Lodge Park.

“It was a Friday, he said ‘I’ll probably see you on Monday and we get the whole thing finalised.’

“So I was there in the hotel for the weekend and then on Monday nothing, Tuesday nothing, Wednesday nothing, by now I was starting to seriously think I’d been abandoned, what to do?

“Thursday went by and then Friday, early afternoon, Terry Neill arrived in his car, and he said, ‘look, get in the car, I’m going to drive you to the chairman’s house, Denis Hill-Wood, we need to talk with you.’

“So we went down to a beautiful house and grounds in a small town called Hartley Wintney.

“We walked through to the back of the house, walked out on to a veranda and there were steps down and his lawn was the size of Lord’s Cricket Ground, absolutely massive, immaculately mown, and cared for.

“He was sat right in the middle and so Terry Neill and I we walked down the steps and I said, ‘this is like a pair of opening batsmen,’ it’s just how it felt.

“Terry Neill introduced me to the chairman who was very polite in his thanks to me and his apologies for having kept me waiting in the hotel.

“The three of us are sat round this table and he said, ‘I’m going to explain to you what the situation is, but may I first of all ask you a question? If you don’t sign for Arsenal Football Club, what will you do?’

“I said, ‘I’ve had plenty of time to think about it this week and I know of great interest from Belgium.’

“Belgium was a leading country at the time, freedom of contract, they were the first in Europe and I knew that Anderlecht were very interested, who were European champions at the time.

“So I said, ‘if I don’t sign for Arsenal, I’ll more than likely go and play abroad.’

“Then he held his hand up and waved and a butler has come out of the house and had an old bakelite telephone on a 200 yard cable and has just put it on the table and departed.

“Sir Denis Hill-Wood has picked the phone up and dialled a number and said, you’ll see the reason for all of this as I speak.’

“I heard him say ‘good afternoon my Lord,’ so I realised he was on the phone with Lord Westwood, who was chairman of Newcastle.

“He said ‘I have Malcolm Macdonald here with me, now, we offered 275,000 a week ago, which you said yes to. Two days later, you then came back to us and turned it down, you reneged on it. I then made you an offer of 300,000 and you accepted that and then two days later you reneged on it again, so my Lord, this is the situation that I’m at. I am now offering you one third of a million pounds, do you accept that? You do my Lord, that’s good to hear, but more importantly you’re not going to change you’re mind are you? You’re not, and that is it, the matter is now concluded and I can talk to your player? Thank you my Lord, good day.’

“He said ‘right, that is the deal done,’ and so he then waved his hand again and out came the butler with a tray of three massive tumbler glasses full of gin and tonic.

“So we had this gin and tonic each to celebrate and he said ‘now you two can get on with the contract details and hopefully we can get all of that settled and you’re going to be our player, we’ll look forward to that’ and so off I went.

“We got the negotiations out of the way the following day and on the Sunday, I travelled with the full Arsenal squad over to Switzerland and we

played the first of the pre-season matches, Grasshoppers of Zurich.

“I was marked by the great Gunter Netzer, he had the biggest feet I had ever seen on a football pitch, they must have been size 14.

“Then we went to Yugoslavia, we came back after a fortnight of travelling and when we arrived back at Highbury, I was asked if I would go up and see Ken Friar, so up I went, he was the secretary then.

“He said ‘sit down, now I’ve got something to show you. I wrote out a cheque for 333,333 and 33 pence, and had it ready for the chairman to sign so that we could send it to Newcastle United.

“He said the chairman came in, he looked at the cheque and he said ‘tear it up and write a new cheque out for 333,333 and 34 pence, and the reason for that Ken is, now it is exactly a third of a million, I am not having those quibbling so and so’s up on Tyneside moaning about a loss of a pence, so he said make it 34 pence.”

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