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A Scottish winger, Pat Nevin started his career in his native country where he was on the books as a schoolboy with Scottish giants Glasgow Celtic. Indeed, Nevin was born in Glasgow, yet he never made the grade with the Hoops. Depite scoring 180 goals in one season for the youth team at Park Head, Nevin was released for being "too small".
Eventually playing his first league football at Clyde in the Scottish leagues, Nevin made 91 appearances, scoring 20 times between 1981 and 1983 before earning a £95,000 transfer to Chelsea.
For Nevin, this would be the start of a 14-year affiliation with English football, a time when he would play for three different clubs and his career would flourish.
The stay at Chelsea lasted five years, with Nevin thoroughly impressing from the wing. He won promotion to the First Division in his first season with Chelsea, and then the club finished 6th in their first season in Division One.
Indeed, the youngster was turning plenty of heads in England. Regularly, he was the pivitol player for Chelsea, putting in star performances and after 241 appearances for the club, scoring 46 goals in the process, Nevin left Chelsea for Everton in July 1988, signing for a fee of £925,000.
Nevin stayed with Everton for four years, but by this time, the club were becoming just a shadow of the side they once were.
In 1989, the Toffee's lost in the F.A. Cup final to rivals Liverpool, a match that ended 3-2 after extra time, and in which former Tranmere player John Aldridge scored, but this would be the only major final that Nevin played in for the Merseyside club.
151 times Nevin appeared in an Everton shirt, scoring 21 goals, but the arrival of Howard Kendal in 1990 limited the chances that Nevin would get in the first team.
Come 1992, an offer for the player had come in from across the River Mersey, with Tranmere manager John King wanting to sign the player on loan.
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After his initial loan spell with Tranmere, Nevin had done enough to convince King to go out and buy him, with Rovers owner Peter Johnson forking out £300,000 to pay for his services.
Like Aldridge, Nevin enjoyed some great success but so many near misses in his time at Tranmere. Rovers missed out on a League Cup final in the 1993/94 season as they were knocked out at the semi-final stage by Aston Villa on penalties, this after the game had ended 4-4 on aggregate over two legs, whilst Rovers where also involved in three play-off attempts to reach the Premier League, all of which failed.
Indeed, you could say it was a case of so near, yet so far, for Tranmere Rovers, in what has now been classed by the fans as "The Golden Era".
Ultimately though, Nevin played a huge role in helping the Tranmere side to such success, of which the likes has never been seen before, or since.
He had pace and skill, whilst the delivery of the final ball from Nevin was second to none. Many Tranmere fans would argue that, like John Aldridge at the time, Nevin was still of Premier League quality.
It was between the ages of 29 and 34 that Nevin played for Tranmere Rovers, perhaps the age when a winger reaches his peak. He played 231 games for the club and scored 39 goals, although it is the amount of goals that he set up that made Nevin such a fan favourite.
From the wings, Nevin, who was often partnered on the other wing by another Tranmere legend, Jonny Morrisey, provided countless amounts of crosses from which the likes of John Aldridge and Ian Muir would score.
He fitted perfectly into the John King style of play - get the ball on the floor and pass it out to the wingers, who will cross it infor the strikers to score.
Without doubt, Celtic's decision to release a young Nevin, because he was only 5'06 feet tall, was a poor one, and perhaps one that the club regret.
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It should also not be forgotten, of course, that Nevin did win national recognition for his performances at club level, winning 28 caps for his country, scoring five goals, earning the final one whilst at Tranmere in 1996.
Since retirement, Nevin has become a successful sports journalist, working for Channel Five and as a newspaper columnist, with his opinions and thoughts on the game widely respected through-out Britain.
Like Aldridge, Nevin was a genious with the ball. He could pick out a striker like most others to wear the Tranmere shirt never could and probably never will be able to. He was lethal when partnered with Morrisey and Aldo whilst at Prenton Park, and is arguably the best winger the club has ever had.