Seven of the most dramatic deadline day moments from Peter Odemwingie to a faulty fax machine
- Sean Fisher
- 31 August 2021
Panic buys, fax machine breakdowns and player meltdowns, transfer deadline day is often filled with excitement but rarely goes to plan.
Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jack Grealish, Jadon Sancho and many others changed clubs during a frantic summer of dealings.
Deadline day was also full of drama as Real Madrid failed in their pursuit of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann returned to Atletico Madrid and Daniel James confirmed his move from Manchester United to Leeds.
Torres out, Suarez and Carroll in
The January transfer window tends to be the disappointing sequel to it's summer counterpart, but it proved quite the opposite in 2011.
Liverpool's Fernando Torres had made his name as one of the best Premier League strikers during his time at Anfield, and in doing so, attracted attention from Chelsea.
The Blues finally got their man on the deadline day of the 2011 January transfer window after Liverpool accepted a £50million bid, leaving them with just a few hours to find a suitable replacement.
The Newcastle United favourite enjoyed a successful season the year prior, scoring 11 goals in 19 appearances, but Carroll often struggled to maintain consistency due to injuries.
However, while Carroll was seen as the outright replacement for Torres, it was actually Liverpool's other deadline day signing that turned out to be a bargain - a £22million deal for Ajax's Luis Suarez.
The Uruguayan striker, albeit controversial, was one of the league's best during his time in England, and almost single-handedly carried Liverpool to a league title before his £65million move to Barcelona in 2014.
All in all, it proved to be one hit and one miss for Liverpool and a succession of misses for Torres and Chelsea.
Odemwingie's disastrous drive
With Odemwingie pushing for a move to Queen's Park Rangers in January 2013, the then-West Brom striker decided to take matters into his own hands and make the drive down to west London.
Anticipating arriving and signing for the club, Odemwingie was instead turned away from the stadium as the two sides were yet to agree a fee.
A bewildered and confused Odemwingie then proceeded to wait in the club's car park, hoping the fee would be sorted quickly.
Radamel Falcao's early morning shenanigans
After a torrid season under David Moyes in 2013, Manchester United looked to return to winning ways under the tutelage of new coach Louis van Gaal.
His first job was to bring in summer additions, and boy did he leave it late.
United had already broken the British transfer record to land Real Madrid's Angel Di Maria - that also ended in tears but we'll leave that for another day.
Further signings in the shape of Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw also joined the squad.
Daley Blind also joined United from Ajax, but Danny Welbeck's late departure to Arsenal left the Red Devils needing a focal point in attack.
A late and frantic search for strikers began and AS Monaco's Radamel Falcao was eventually targeted.
Eventually, after being granted a time extension to complete the deal, United announced a season-long loan for the Colombian at 1.30am.
The saga was over and United had got their man.
Four goals in 26 appearances followed, leaving United fans wondering why they had bothered staying up.
David de Gea, Real Madrid and the faulty fax machine
Rewind to 2015 and David de Gea was one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best.
The Manchester United man won consecutive Player of the Year awards at Old Trafford and was one of the few positives from their disappointing stint under Van Gaal.
Understandably, the Spaniard attracted the attention of Real Madrid, who were looking to replace the legendary Iker Casillas.
De Gea was dropped for United's first few games of the season, all but confirming his £29million move to Madrid, with Keylor Navas expected to come the other way.
But after the transfer saga raged on throughout the summer, it typically boiled down to not just the last few hours of the window, but the last few minutes.
Real Madrid missed the deadline by roughly two minutes, and claimed United had purposefully delayed the completion of the deal by filing their paperwork at exactly 11pm.
However, United responded by saying they actually filed the deal two minutes before the deadline - apparently more than enough time for Real Madrid to complete the signing.
Furthermore, the Premier League side complained that Madrid suffered admin problems during the deal, blaming a faulty fax machine as the reason behind the delays.
Two of Europe's elite, boasting multi-million pound revenue streams, squabbling over a piece of equipment which most of us haven't used since 2000. You couldn't make it up.
Berahino's outburst
Well, back in 2015 West Brom's Saido Berahino simply couldn't seal his lips, and went on a wild twitter rant at the breakdown of his transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
With Tottenham looking to break into the Champions League qualification spots, they set their sights on Berahino.
West Brom had placed a £25million price tag on their star striker, but typically, Spurs were in haggling mode.
Eventually the deal broke down, much to the fury of Berahino, who took to Twitter to let West Brom chairman Jeremy Pearce know exactly what he thought of the situation.
In a now deleted tweet, Berahino said: "It's sad how I can't say exactly how the club have treated me, but I can officially say I will never play for Jeremy Pearce."
Inevitably, it didn't end well for Berahino, and he was eventually offloaded to Stoke City in 2017, where his career's downward spiral continued.
Replacing an injured player with…an injured player
Let's be honest, Arsenal's transfer strategy in recent years has often been questionable, but their 2014 deadline day deal for Kim Kallstrom makes all their other business look like masterstrokes.
After Aaron Ramsey suffered an injury that would see him miss a large chunk of the 2014/15 season, Arsenal were left frantically searching the market for a short-term replacement.
Despite the panic, Arsenal managed to find an experienced international player in the shape of Sweden's Kim Kallstrom, and everything in north London looked rosy.
Leeds United's false hope
Ahead of Leeds United's 2014/15 Championship season, the club's Twitter account sent fans into raptures after a tweet read: "Don't go to bed yet…there is still work to be done."
Excitement enveloped the Leeds faithful as they awaited their new signing. Was it the man to help them return to their former glories?
Nope. Breaking news followed that striker Dominic Poleon had left to join Oldham Athletic on a two-year deal.
Surely that's not all? Leeds' Twitter admin wouldn't have fans stay up just to learn their club had offloaded a fringe player, would they?
Well yes, they would - and to make matters worse, the club's Twitter account signed off deadline day with a tweet that read: "After a busy last hour that is us done for the 2014 Summer Transfer Window."
