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At the time the trend of buying foreigners was just beginning to creep into the English game and Blues had gambled £175,000 on the talents of Tarantini.
He made his English league debut at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur and his World Cup winning team-mate Ossie Ardiles on October 14th.
A week later he made his home debut for the Blues and the St. Andrew's crowd doubled to over 36,000.
Tarantini was a world-class player, an attacking full-back who could also play at centre-half. He could spray pin-point passes and added great flair to the Blues side.
However, he did not take to the English game and in April 1979 his contract at St. Andrew's was cancelled. Tarantini had played in just 23 League games, scoring once in a 1-1 home draw with Bristol City in November 1978.The total deal had cost Blues £259,000.
Tarantini returned to Argentina and played for Talleres Cordoba and River Plate before another trip to Europe took him to French clubs Bastia and Toulouse. From there he went to Switzerland and Urania Geneva.
The charasmatic full-back went on to play 59 times for Argentinia.
Now in his late 50's, Tarantini can be found occasionally coaching youngsters in his home town of Buenos Aires.
