Biggest Transfer Cockups

[Porco Rosso]

• Liverpool pissing off Southampton regarding Van Dijk with the leaks about Klopp 'wooing' VVD in Blackpool and sending texts. Ended up with Liverpool having to make an apology on their site.
  
• Liverpool also had to make an apology to Fulham over tapping up Clint Dempsey several years previously.
• Arsenal bidding £40,000,001 for Suarez.

I've never understood why Arsenal come in for such stick over the Suarez Bid - they were working on the understanding that a bid in excess of £40m triggered a release clause - assuming that to be true for a second, how much would they be expected to bid? £45m perhaps - and just make a gift of £5m to liverpool for no reason at all?
As it turned out of course they found out that the "release clause" was rather a "gentlemans agreement" and that the Liverpool Board turned out not to be Gentlemen after all! Still can't see what it was Arsenal did wrong if I'm honest.

 

[ottosec]

Sir Alex went full Scottish on quite a few transfers and we ended up losing some top players because of that.

 

[marukomu]

Pogba

 

[Furious George]

Graeme Souness, he who declared that Pogba was vastly overpriced, once signed a gentleman called Ali Dia after receiving a phone call from Dia's mate saying that Dia was George Weah's cousin.

He wasn't.

 

[harms]

“Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”

 

[John_Jensen]

I've never understood why Arsenal come in for such stick over the Suarez Bid - they were working on the understanding that a bid in excess of £40m triggered a release clause - assuming that to be true for a second, how much would they be expected to bid? £45m perhaps - and just make a gift of £5m to liverpool for no reason at all?
As it turned out of course they found out that the "release clause" was rather a "gentlemans agreement" and that the Liverpool Board turned out not to be Gentlemen after all! Still can't see what it was Arsenal did wrong if I'm honest.

Yep, they were led to believe there was a solid release clause. Happens all the time in Europe, Bayern for example bid €1 more than Gotze's release clause when they took him from Dortmund.

 

[John_Jensen]

Two clubs claim to have signed the same player.
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/40454783

This happened wth Luis Figo years ago aswell, when Juve & Parma both declared they had signed him. The dispute led to him being banned from Italian football for a few years and he wound up at Barca instead.

 

[chb23]

...

And Moyes to United, thank you Fergie

This 120%. In terms of effect, went from champions to nada and had a few stars leave.

 

[RedPed]

Absolutely correct. If I am not wrong Fellaini also had to put in a last hour transfer request thereby foregoing his loyalty bonus.
I shudder when i think of that season. That cock-up of a transfer window foreshadowed as to what was in store for us that season.

Well according to some, the kid's done ok and we should hang on to him so we should really be thanking wee Davey!

 

[sullydnl]

Herrera the first time was Hilario but weren't these supposed agents/lawyers nothing to do with the club? I could be wrong on this.
Fellaini plain and simple we didn't get any other top targets and had to pay a premium on a 3rd 4th 5th rated target
DDG Real didn't dither we fecked them about on purpose IMO.



Mikel wasn't a cock up neither. The deal was agreed and he fecked off to Chelsea for oodles more cash claiming kidnapping. Quite simple really.

That's what was put out at the time but since then there’s been a few different reports that they received an apology from the club.

 

[sullydnl]

That Moyes summer was outstandingly awful. Just remembered the Baines/Fellaini double-bid tactic......

 

[SammyUnited_83]

This 120%. In terms of effect, went from champions to nada and had a few stars leave.

Yeah the appointment of Moyes will go down as one of the worst business / sporting decision's of all time.

In fact the whole process sounded a farce, the biggest job in world football and it was handled atrociously.

Cut from the same cloth my arse.

 

[Ramshock]

What are the biggest transfer cockups ever? I am only aware of the recent ones involving United, but I am sure there have to be huge mis-deals involving many other teams too.

The ones I know of

• United's first attempt to purchase Herrera, where there were apparently 3 lawyers representing United to trigger Herrera's buyout clause, but United categorically denied the lawyers were theirs. Huh?
• Fellaini's buyout clause of £22m expires, only for United to purchase him a few weeks later at £27m. Hence began our fans love at first sight with the Fellaini tree.
• DDG agreed a move to RM, where Navas would come the other way to United. RM dither for so long that the deal was never completed due to a faulty fax machine.

Are you 12? What about Mikel? Gazza?.Peter Beardsley? Ronaldinho?

 

[manunited1919]

Are you 12? What about Mikel? Gazza?.Peter Beardsley? Ronaldinho?

Thank you for calling me 12, I don't mind if you remove the years. If you don't like this thread you are free to read all the moaning in the main transfer thread, hope you enjoy yourself with all the adults there. Or feel free to share a few more words about the Mikel, Gazza, Beardsley and Ronaldhino transfers that make them special.

 

[a_devil_inside]

Roy Keane turning down Liverpool for Man Utd, think was down to the manager not calling him back or something.
Peter Beardsley signing for £250K, playing one game then going back to Canada again.
The Kaka Man City tattoo

 

[Gopher Brown]

I read that United sent them a password protected .PDF file like 5 minutes before midnight and they couldn't open it. That was what was reported by a reliable source who presented a timeline of what went down that night. Not sure why the fax machine story became the commonly accepted one.


I seem to remember Robinho confirming in an interview at some point, that yes, he thought he was signing for Man Utd as he had barely even heard of City before.

Surely the fact that De Gea is still with us suggests RM fecked up, rather than us.

Although, the fax machine story does seem like a cover for something else

 

[antohan]

Not sure of the details but pretty sure Fergies or Gill or both penny pinching cost United from signing player such as Robben, Essien, and Hazard.

I Could probably include Ronaldinho but that kid CR turned out alright didnt he?

I think Hazard was SAF vs. agent power/fees.

The pthers were all agent Kenyon from the KGB.

 

[humdinger]

Jon Obi Mikel to us/Chelsea was a total farce.

 

[jderbyshire]

Roy Keane turning down Liverpool for Man Utd, think was down to the manager not calling him back or something.
Peter Beardsley signing for £250K, playing one game then going back to Canada again.
The Kaka Man City tattoo

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[a_devil_inside]

@jderbyshire Ahh right thanks, Dalglish is who I was thinking of with the Liverpool connections.

 

[Ramshock]

Thank you for calling me 12, I don't mind if you remove the years. If you don't like this thread you are free to read all the moaning in the main transfer thread, hope you enjoy yourself with all the adults there. Or feel free to share a few more words about the Mikel, Gazza, Beardsley and Ronaldhino transfers that make them special.

I didnt call you anything. I asked you

 

[manunited1919]

I didnt call you anything. I asked you

No problem.

 

[Adisa]

De Gea by some distance. I went to bed that night thinking he was a Madrid player.

 

[simonhch]

Are you 12? What about Mikel? Gazza?.Peter Beardsley? Ronaldinho?

Thank you for calling me 12, I don't mind if you remove the years. If you don't like this thread you are free to read all the moaning in the main transfer thread, hope you enjoy yourself with all the adults there. Or feel free to share a few more words about the Mikel, Gazza, Beardsley and Ronaldhino transfers that make them special.

I'll admit, I laughed. Because it's what I thought too. Those transfers you mentioned are all very recent and very small fry in the wider context of transfer cockwomblery

 

[William_Meredith]

Ryan Giggs and Phil Neville advising Moyes not to sign Thiago Alcantara (in my view, the best midfielder in the world) on the basis that he's 'Not a Manchester United player', has to be among the most egregious examples. And also why neither should be involved in the coaching set-up at MUFC ever again.

 

[Damien]

I've never understood why Arsenal come in for such stick over the Suarez Bid - they were working on the understanding that a bid in excess of £40m triggered a release clause - assuming that to be true for a second, how much would they be expected to bid? £45m perhaps - and just make a gift of £5m to liverpool for no reason at all?
As it turned out of course they found out that the "release clause" was rather a "gentlemans agreement" and that the Liverpool Board turned out not to be Gentlemen after all! Still can't see what it was Arsenal did wrong if I'm honest.

It was fine. The cockup was bidding that amount thinking they were going to get him, without making 100% sure there was actually a release clause - so instead of being a smart move it ended up being "embarrassing" as some people like to say.

 

[KingMinger22]

Fergie and Gill's sworn oath of "value" cost us massively.

Just think of the Hazard cock up of refusing the agent fee.

I think that policy is why we have been gash for four years trying to catch up.

 

[Alanxyz]

Graeme Souness, he who declared that Pogba was vastly overpriced, once signed a gentleman called Ali Dia after receiving a phone call from Dia's mate saying that Dia was George Weah's cousin.

He wasn't.

This has always made me smile, not least because it happened to Souness.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/ali-dia-story-20-years-on-southampton-souness

 

[DomesticTadpole]

This has always made me smile, not least because it happened to Souness.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/ali-dia-story-20-years-on-southampton-souness

Pity Gary Neville can't slip that into match commentary sometime. Just for laughs.

 

[klayton88]

Pedro - If we were in for him in the first place that is.

 

[Nytram Shakes]

Not signing a single first team ready Centre midfielder between Anderson in 2007 and Fellaini in 2013.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Not signing a single first team ready Centre midfielder between Anderson in 2007 and Fellaini in 2013.

More of a crime than a cockup.

 

[NinjaFletch]

• Arsenal bidding £40,000,001 for Suarez.

Wasn't a cock up because he did have that clause. Had Suarez been desperate for a move to Arsenal, which you suspect he wasn't, he could have gone after Liverpool for breach of contract:

And Henry confirmed his belief that they were in a position to reject the approach as “apparently these contacts don’t seem to hold”, despite the view that it was a breach of contract or as Suarez put it at the time the club had reneged on their word.

Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference over the weekend, Henry also said in a filmed panel discussion that Liverpool will qualify for the Champions League and have an outsiders chance of winning the Premier League this season.


“Luis Suarez is the top scorer in the English Premier League which is arguably the top soccer league in the world,” said Henry.

“And he had a buy-out clause - I don't know what degree I should go into this - but he had a buy-out clause of £40million - more than 60 million (US) dollars. So Arsenal, one of our prime rivals this year ... they offered £40million and one pound for him and triggered his buy-out clause.

“But what we've found over the years is that contracts don't seem to mean a lot in England - actually not in England, in world football. It doesn't matter how long a player's contract is, he can decide he's leaving.

 

[Damien]

Wasn't a cock up because he did have that clause. Had Suarez been desperate for a move to Arsenal, which you suspect he wasn't, he could have gone after Liverpool for breach of contract:

Yeah, I remember that (from 2014). What Wenger said earlier this year made it seem there wasn't an actual clause though:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsene-wenger-reveals-luis-suarez-10089995

“He was very close (to signing for Arsenal). We had an agreement with the player. We had been wrongly advised that he had a clause, with a minimal clause, but we had an agreement with the player. You can ask him.

“I'm convinced he wanted to join us and then they sold him. They kept him one more year, improved his contract and promised to sell him the year later to a club abroad."

 

[manunited1919]

I'll admit, I laughed. Because it's what I thought too. Those transfers you mentioned are all very recent and very small fry in the wider context of transfer cockwomblery

I'm not pretending to know that much, those are just some recent examples to get the ball rolling. Seems this weekend is dead in the main transfer thread. Love to hear some good old transfer cockwomblery if you care to share.

 

[jesperjaap]

Just remember another beauty: In 2010 we paid Guimaraes £7.4m for Bebe, when 5 weeks earlier he was available for just 125,000 from his previous club Estrella.

Bearing in mind the fee you mentioned, the rumours we didnt even see him play and how rubbish he was, this has to rate highly as a cock up as it was such an expensive and poorly prepared gamble, terrible work by us

 

[jesperjaap]

35 million for andy carrol even in today's market it would be a joke.

selling jap stam if that wasn't a cock up i don't know what is.

Agree on Stam and Carroll. If I was in charge of Liverpool I would pay the 70m for the Leizpeg player they are linke dwith , purely so that the clubs record transfer would no longer be Andy Carroll....how bad is that

 

[prtk0811]

Gill and Fergie retiring at the same time and the whole 2013 window.

 

[jesperjaap]

Not so much cock ups but transfer shenanigans I most remember that were really dissapointing would have to be:

1) Allowing Gascoigne to go on holiday without yet having signed on the dotted line, then losing him to Spurs by the time he came back.
2) The Sun front page breaking the story we had signed Shearer for a record £15m
3) Missing out on Ronaldhino. I think if Beckham had of signed for them we would have got him.....still, would we have signed Ronaldo still?

 

[Classical Mechanic]

King Kenneth threatening to twat Roy Keane after being convinced he was signing for Blackburn.