Bryan ROY

Nottingham Forest showed they meant business on their return to the top flight by paying a club record £2.9 million to secure the services of Dutch World Cup star Bryan Roy. It was something of a coup for manager Frank Clark to persuade Roy to join the City Ground outfit but also a gamble as it blew his whole transfer budget on one player. Roy had spent his time on the left wing at previous clubs Ajax and Foggia but Clark had other ideas and handed him a central role on his arrival at Forest. The player started repaying his manager's faith immediately by scoring a stunning goal on his debut to give the Reds a 1-0 victory at Ipswich Town. Roy hit it off with strike partner Stan Collymore to great effect and the pair contributed 35 goals as Forest enjoyed a memorable season.

The Dutchman weighed in with 13 of those goals as the club finished third in the League to book a return to European competition. Collymore moved onto pastures new in the summer and Roy was never able to reproduce the form of that first season as the club struggled to replace his former partner. He could manage only eight League goals in the 1995/96 campaign but Forest did enjoy a fine run in Europe that season and it was Roy who fired them into the second round with an outstanding goal against Malmo. The Swedes had won the first leg 2-1 but that great strike from the Amsterdam-born Roy, little more than ten minutes from time, took the Reds through on the away goals rule. The following season proved to be his last at the club and he moved on to German outfit Hertha Berlin in the summer of 1997. (David Scranage)