On 18th December 1971, Alan Ball played in Everton’s 2-0 defeat to Derby at the Baseball Ground. Little did he know that when the full-time whistle was blown, he had played his last game for Everton. Just four days later, he left the Blues to join Arsenal for a fee of £220,000 – a British record fee at the time. Evertonians were devastated, and so was Ball.

Three days after the defeat to Derby, Alan Ball went to Bellefield for training. The Everton players were given an early break from training in the morning, and Ball was brought in to the office by club physiotherapist Norman Borrowdale for a meeting with Harry Catterick. Catterick told him that Everton were going to sell him to Arsenal and their manager Bertie Mee was waiting in another room to speak to him, which took him by surprise.

In Ball’s book Playing Extra Time, he said to Catterick:

Why? I don’t want to go. Why are you selling me? I am your captain. I am twenty-seven [sic] years of age. I am playing for England. I am playing for England. I am playing well and you want to sell me. I just can’t understand that.

Catterick’s responded:

It’s business, son. I am doubling my money. I’ve had you for six years. I am making a profit on you and I have had an awful lot out of you. Football’s business, son.

Everton chairman George Watts said the move started when Bertie Mee contacted Catterick to make an offer for him.

The Ball move started on Monday [20th December] when Arsenal manager Bertie Mee got in touch with Mr Catterick to make a firm offer. We called a quick board meeting and the directors agreed to allow Mr Catterick to handle the business as he thought fit. He has our full backing in this decision.

Ball was reluctant to talk to Mee, saying he was happy playing for Everton and he did not need any disruption so soon after the birth of his daughter Keely. Ball wished to talk to his father, Preston manager Alan Ball Sr. Catterick gave him the phone and Ball rang him, telling him that Everton accepted a bid from Arsenal for him. His father said there was no bigger club than Arsenal after they won the league and FA Cup double the previous season and told Ball Jr to head home as soon as he could. He eventually spoke to Bertie Mee and agreed to go to London for further discussions.

When Ball went home, his father tried to get him to move to a club in the north west instead. He rang Manchester United and Manchester City immediately, explaining to both of their managers that Arsenal were interested in signing Ball and Ball did not want to move to London. Manchester United manager Frank O’Farrell said he had little interest in signing him because David Sadler was doing a good job in midfield. Manchester City manager Malcolm Allison, however, was really interested and said he would talk to the board about making an offer. Manchester United then had second thoughts and had arranged someone to be at Euston Station to show that they were interested.

Alan Ball and his father left Manchester and arrived at Watford Junction – the last stop before Euston Station. When they stopped at Watford, Arsenal’s assistant secretary Ken Friar was on the platform looking for them. Arsenal had heard about Manchester United’s interest and the club had hoped to catch them before they go to Euston. Friar told Ball and his father to leave the train and he would drive them to Highbury. They discussed with Friar and Bertie Mee what moving to Arsenal could mean for Ball, talking about finances, bonuses, accommodation and more. Ball said in Playing Extra Time that he would receive a basic wage of about £250 per week – much more than he was on at Everton. Ball Sr left discussions to phone Malcolm Allison and told him about Arsenal’s offer. Allison said Manchester City could not compete with their offer. Terms were agreed and Alan Ball became an Arsenal player, receiving 10% of the transfer fee.

An hour after he sealed his move to Arsenal, Alan Ball spoke to the Liverpool Echo, upset at the fact he was no longer an Everton player.

I feel very sad. It’s not just a question of changing the colour of your shirt. It goes a lot deeper than that. I have just left a great club. Everything about it was great and I have spent some of the happiest years of my life there.

I was shocked when I was told that Mr Mee was waiting for me and that I could go to Arsenal. It is not for me to argue why. But I am going to miss that Everton crowd. I don’t think I would ever have asked to leave Everton but when you are faced with a situation like this, you have no alternative. I shall play my heart out for Arsenal just as I always did for Everton. I am not bitter about it – just a trifle sad.

Ball, talking to the Daily Mirror, also said the way he left Everton had shattered his faith in the club.

On Tuesday [21st December], I was down – about as low as you can get. Shaken by the shock news that my beloved Everton were ready to sell me and stunned by the follow-up punch that the boss, Harry Catterick, delivered – it was Arsenal or the axe.

Mr Catterick told me that he was going to leave me out of the side – even before Arsenal came in for me. All right, I’d had a stinker at Derby last Saturday. I’m not making excuses but there was a fairly human and understandable reason. Last Friday, my wife, Lesley, gave birth to our second daughter and that night, I didn’t sleep. I’d hoped the boss might understand. He didn’t, and that was it.

It wasn’t just my pride that had been hurt. My faith in the club, to whom I had given everything for five years, had been suddenly shattered. How could I be worth over £200,000 to Arsenal and not worth a first-team place to Everton? The only conclusion I could come to was that Harry Catterick must have thought I was going over the hill. Burned out at the ripe old age of twenty-six? Well, everyone’s entitled to an opinion.

Although, he was going to really miss Everton fans and he would always respect them.

It’s hard to imagine that I’m about to leave Merseyside. It’s hard, too, to think of those wonderful, wonderful Everton fans of mine as mere memories. I’ll give them a big welcome to Highbury if they come down for my home debut on January 1 against… wait for it… Everton.

Alan Ball Sr said they went down to Watford initially to not sign the deal, although not mentioning because he tried to get Ball Jr a move to one of the Manchester clubs, but the offer was too good to turn down.

We came down ready not to sign. He is a Northern boy and didn’t want, and didn’t need, to sign. But it was an offer he could not possibly refuse. This offer coupled with the one that took him to Everton five and a half years ago has gone a long way to securing his future.

Bertie Mee had been pursuing Ball for a long while and admitted to contacting Everton every so often asking if he was available.

Some time ago, I asked Everton to let me know if he ever became available. Since then, I suppose I called them once every third or fourth month. I rang them again on Monday. And it appears I called at just the moment they were prepared to sell. It really was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

Harry Catterick said the decision to sell him was not an easy decision to make but was done at the club’s best interests.

I expect to be criticised over Ball’s transfer. No manager parts with a top class player without criticism but – as is the case in every transfer negotiation – only the Everton directors and myself can be aware of all the facts.

We believed it was in the best interests of the club and player that we should part. I want to make it clear that contrary to reports the only we received for Ball was from Arsenal. He is still a very fine player – don’t forget, I bought him so I know all about his qualities. Some people said, when I bought him from Blackpool, that I had paid too much for him, but I have always thought very highly of him.

I am sure he will continue to do well and I am very sorry to see him go. The decision to let him go was not an easy one, believe me.

The day after his transfer, Alan Ball returned to Goodison Park. He despondently spoke about his return to the ground to the Daily Mirror, including saying his goodbyes to his former teammates, Harry Catterick, and the club groundsman.

People tell me I should be feeling the happiest, most contented footballer in Britain after saying, “Goodbye Goodison, hello Highbury.” A few might also be thinking that, apart from being the most expensive player in the country, I am also the luckiest. Well, let me tell you this. Yesterday [23rd December], Alan Ball wasn’t the happy-go-lucky fella you might imagine. He was sad. So sad that when he picked up those easy-to-find white boots and turned his back on the Everton dressing room for the last time, a lump the size of a football came into his throat.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t any second thoughts about joining Arsenal. They’re great and, if it’s in my power, I’ll try with all I’ve got to make them even greater. I’ll be out there training with them for the first time at Highbury this morning, feeling exactly the way I did on the day I joined Everton more than five years ago… jubilant, impatient to get on with the exciting challenge ahead. But that goodbye to Goodison really turned me over. It wasn’t easy. In a way, it was hell.

I’d always had it in my mind that when I left Everton, they would have to push me out in a wheelchair. That was until Tuesday, when everything changed and Harry Catterick, the boss, told me he had accepted Arsenal’s record offer. The rest you probably know – except about how flat I felt when the parting of the ways became a reality after I’d trained for the last time with my old teammates at Everton’s training centre yesterday.

There were a few laughs at first from the lads. Like “Where’ve you put the Rolls, Alan?”, “Are you going to commute by helicopter?” and “Rockefeller’s on the phone.” All good humorous stuff, typical of a great bunch of lads, and it helped to keep my chin up when I was feeling a bit down. So did the couple of goals I banged in during a five-a-side finale which my lot won 6-2. As I told them at the time, I’ll be happy to complete that little scoring flurry as hat-trick on New Year’s Day when, by one of fate’s strange quirks, Everton provide the opposition for my Highbury debut.

When I said goodbye to Harry Catterick, there was a bit of a strained atmosphere at each other, and both of us seemed as though we didn’t really know what to say. So we decided on a bit of small talk. And, of course, the handshake.

The real heartbreak I managed to hold over until I had left my teammates tucking into the club’s Christmas dinner and had nipped down to Goodison to pick up my playing boots and to say my cheerios to the staff. It was when I walked out over that famous and familiar Goodison pitch to shake hands with our groundsman, Sid McGuinness, that I felt it most of all.

Sid was trying to hold back the tears and so was I. All right, I know I’m wide open for the “crying all the way to the bank” punch. But only the real pro can truly appreciate how it gets you when you’re leaving a great club – even though it means going to another.

22nd December 1971 was a heartbreaking day for Evertonians and Alan Ball, but even though Ball left on fairly acrimonious terms, he still loved the club and the fans, and the club and the fans still love him.