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A new five-year deal signed by Chelsea and England captain John Terry has made him England's highest paid player. He has doubled his earnings to £135,000 a week, more than £7m a year, taking him above his team mates Andrly Shevchenko and Michael Ballack who earn £121,000 a week. Frank Lampard is unlikely to settle for much less, although he has two years to run on his contract. Back in the 1880s when clubs were first allowed to pay players, Blackburn Rovers' top players earned £1 a week. Sixty years ago in 1947 the maximum wage was £12 a week. By the time it was abolished in 1961 it was £20 a week, with small win and draw bonuses, putting footballers on a par with skilled manual workers which was probably how most club chairmen viewed them. Many of them lived in 'tied houses' owned by the clubs and rented out to them. With the abolition of the maximum wage, Johnny Haynes became the first £100 a week player and in 1968 George Best broke through the four figure barrier. Roy Keane's £50,000 a week deal made with Manchester United in 1999 set a new standard for top players. When Sol Campbell left Spurs for Arsenal in 2001 he became the best-paid player in British history and the first to break the six figure barrier on a weekly basis.
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