Maradona at Loftus Road? Messi tearing up the Premier League for Man City? Below we list some of the most famous transfers that never happened…
Top 10 most famous transfers that never happened
Matt Le Tissier – Southampton to Spurs / Chelsea
During 16 years at Southampton from 1986 to 2002, Matt Le Tissier was one of the hottest properties in English football. His ability to score spectacular goals, and hammer the ball home from the penalty spot – which saw him convert 47 out of 48 penalties in his career – saw him linked with just about every leading club.
His boyhood club Tottenham were linked year after year, and the closest he got to making that move a reality came in 1990, when he agreed terms with Terry Venables at Spurs, before changing his mind at the last minute.
Seven years later, he turned down the chance to join Glenn Hoddle at Chelsea, and Le Tissier finally retired from football in 2002 as a one-club man, albeit returning briefly for non-league Eastleigh.
Robbie Keane – Spurs / Liverpool to Everton
Much travelled though he was, the former Ireland captain never played for Everton, though that did not stop reports linking him with a move to Goodison Park repeatedly throughout his career. Back in 2005, the headlines had David Moyes making a shock move to take him from Spurs, while a potential swap deal involving Steven Pienaar was reported in 2011.
The most unlikely speculation, however, was the idea that Keane would travel across Stanley Park from Anfield in 2009, during his short-lived spell at Liverpool, before he rejoined Spurs. He eventually left Tottenham in 2011 for LA Galaxy. Not Everton.
Jamie Vardy – Leicester City to Real Madrid
During his days turning out for Stocksbridge Park Steels, the idea that Real Madrid would one day pursue Jamie Vardy would have seemed ludicrous. However, fast forward to the middle of Leicester’s Premier League title-winning 2015/16 campaign, and that is exactly what some news outlets in Spain were reporting.
Real were said to be impressed by Vardy’s phenomenal goalscoring run, which culminated in the English striker netting in a record-breaking 12 consecutive Premier League games. However, despite all the talk, no offer was forthcoming from the Spanish giants.
Andrei Kanchelskis – Manchester United to Middlesbrough
Up in the north east, the mid-1990s were all about Newcastle. ‘The Entertainers', as Kevin Keegan's scintillating side were called after they finished third in their maiden PL season of 1993/94, had an unstoppable force in Andrew Cole. But he departed for Old Trafford in January 1995, leaving the door open for Middlesbrough – who would be promoted later that year – to spend big and challenge them.
With Juninho arriving as well as the talented Nick Barmby, there was a new sense of hope around Teesside. And it could have been even better, with Andrei Kanchelskis set to leave Manchester United and join Middlesbrough in the summer of 1995. However, Everton manager Joe Royle – recently an FA Cup winner with the Toffees – coaxed the Russian winger to Goodison Park, after which he almost single-handedly fired the Blues to sixth, which was their best finish for nearly a decade.
Middlesbrough were a surprise package early in 1995/96, but they would eventually fade away and suffer relegation the following season. It is very possible that Kanchelskis might have kept up Boro's momentum in their search for Europe during 1995/96, but it was not to be.
Carles Puyol – Barcelona to Newcastle United
When you think of Barcelona, one of the many great names that springs to mind is Carles Puyol. With his unmistakable mop of curly hair and dogged defensive attitude, the defender became a legend at the Camp Nou and spent his whole career there.
However, that did not stop reports surfacing that Puyol was set to leave Barcelona. The most sensational of them came in 2010, when it was reported by outlets in Spain that Puyol was off to Newcastle United – and Steven Taylor would be going the other way as part of the deal.
The transfer, unsurprisingly, never happened and Puyol went on to enjoy four more years at Barça.
Diego Maradona – Queens Park Rangers
This one, from the early days of the Premier League, came when QPR were ambitious and relatively successful, regularly finishing above their local rivals Chelsea. The chairman was asked by a local reporter who they were looking to sign, and his response was along the lines of “The sky's the limit – we would go for anyone in the world.”
A bold boast. “What, even Diego Maradona?” responded the reporter, and with the chairman unwilling to back down on his boast, a legendary Evening Standard back page headline was born: “QPR want Maradona”.
Amazingly a teenage Maradona had been offered to Sheffield United for only £200,000 years earlier, but manager Harry Haslam, who'd missed out on Argentinian World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, was stumped by his own board.
Instead, they defender Alex Sabella for £40,000 less. A stinging example of false economy.
Lionel Messi – Barcelona to Chelsea / Man City
Over the past few years there have been moments of discontent at Stamford Bridge, but even while the Blues were hoovering up trophies in the late 2000s and 2010s, not everything was rosy in the garden of SW6. There has always been the sense of a missing link, the last piece of the puzzle to create a truly great and unstoppable dynasty, and one name figured more prominently than all others put together during the height of Roman Abramovich's tenure.
That player is, of course, Lionel Messi. Chelsea undoubtedly had the money needed to force his hand, but his soul and his DNA was only for Barcelona. A neutral can only sympathise, as to join a rich English club in the late 2000s was to throw in all your proverbial poker chips. The likes of Andrei Shevchenko found that out the hard way, and so Messi chose the devil he knew over the one pursuing him.
After ADUG's takover of Manchester City in 2008, there was a new challenger to the Blues' woos, and they went up a notch in 2016, when Barcelona-bred Pep Guardiola went to the Etihad Stadium. If ever there was a time Messi would cave in and try his luck in the Premier League it would be then. But again, he chose to stay and extended his contract with Barcelona.
Sergio Agüero – Manchester City to Spurs
There is no denying Tottenham needed another striker to compete with Harry Kane, but the idea Sergio Agüero could be that man literally had manager Mauricio Pochettino in fits of laughter. The rumour emerged from Spain in October 2016, as doubts grew over Guardiola’s faith in Agüero.
Spurs were reported as the club ready to snap up the striker, but when it was put to Pochettino in a press conference he merely laughed before adding: “100 per cent not true.”
Karim Benzema – Arsenal
Still hoping to replace the irreplaceable Thierry Henry in the post-Invincibles era, Arsenal were relentlessly linked with Benzema for much of the 2010s. It all started when Emmanuel Adebayor seemed unsettled in north London and Benzema was the flavour of the month in Ligue 1, at Lyon. Some said it was a done deal, but he ended up going to Real Madrid a year later, in 2009.
That did not stop Arsene Wenger from still being linked with a move for his fellow countryman, as he apparently failed to settle at the Bernabéu. It is said that the closest Arsenal ever came was back in the summer of 2016, as a replacement for the much-courted Alexis Sanchez.
Although Arsenal fans will not want to hear it, Benzema's decision to stay at Real Madrid was a masterstroke, with the post-Wenger era seeing Arsenal fail several times to clinch their first title since 2004, while Real Madrid have lifted a multitude of trophies, extending the degree of their monopoly over the Champions League to new lengths.
Arsène Wenger – Real Madrid
Even when Wenger was coming towards the end of his time at Arsenal, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez was going to offer him a job at the Bernabeu as either sporting director or first team coach.
It is not the first time Wenger has been linked to the Madrid job. He is on record as saying he has turned it down on more than one occasion, preferring the autonomy of running things at Arsenal over being told who to pick and play in Spain.
Pérez publicly admitted the Arsenal manager turned them down in 2012, just three years after Wenger himself said he had rebuffed a job offer there having met with the club and said a job in Spain would be “interesting”.
Even more ‘interesting', however, are the done deals that have actually happened so far in this summer transfer window, with the likes of Chelsea and Real Madrid spending big once again.
