The Plymouth born Francis made his professional debut as a striker in 1970 with Birmingham City. After nine years at Birmingham he became the first £1 million plus transfer, moving to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. During the summers of 1978 and 1979 he played in the North American Soccer League for Detroit. At Forest he scored the goal that secured them the European Cup against Malmo.
Francis made another high priced move to Manchester City in September 1981 before moves to Sampdoria (£700,000 June 1982), Atalanta (£800,000 July 1986) and Glasgow Rangers (£75,000 August 1987). He finished his playing career with moves to QPR and Sheffield Wednesday. His management career began at QPR as player-manager in 1988-89 and he went on to manage Sheffield Wednesday, initially as player-manager but later as full-time manager (1991 - May 1995), his most successful and also disappointing season was in 1992-93 when the club reached the finals of both domestic cups only to lose. He went on to manage Birmingham City (May 1996 - October 2001) and Crystal Palace F.C (from November 2001).
International caps 52, first in 1977.