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Famous football transfers you couldn't gamble on becoming realities
The on-pitch contest isn't the only place where football is fought. When it comes to building squads and shrewd moves, the transfer market can be a complicated and cut-throat business. Many a manager has made a duff move, but sometimes unexpected transfers can turn out to be surprisingly good. Here are five of the best from recent history.
Pogba joining Juventus for a song and leaving for a fortune
A rare misstep from Sir Alex Ferguson was the handling of Paul Pogba. Despite promotion to the first team in 2011-12, limited time on the pitch caused him to leave Manchester United in August 2012, with his former manager accusing him of disrespecting the team. Juventus picked up the talented French midfielder. It worked out pretty well for Pogba, and Juventus, with the team topping Serie A every season since.
Juventus did, of course, sell Pogba back to Manchester United in 2016, but they did so for a very tidy profit. The price tag for the player the Red Devils had let slip away was a cool £89.3m, a then-record transfer fee. Having sold Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan earlier in 2019, Manchester United may be regretting that decision and other big teams are eagerly eyeing up Pogba for the next transfer window. Despite that, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reported to be against so-called panic-buying (they're a distinctly middling 12th in the table at the time of writing, just two points out of the relegation zone).
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Andrea Pirlo and the free transfer
How much is a player worth? Say, a player with a feather-light touch and a footballing brain that's led countless pundits to describe him as a genius? Someone who has won multiple Champions Leagues, Serie A titles, and a World Cup? Probably tens of millions, right? Or, to be more exact, nothing.
Andrea Pirlo left AC Milan in 2011 to join Juventus on a free transfer. It had been years since Juventus last had a title, but, aided by Pirlo (amongst others), the team won every Serie A since his signing, four on the bounce. Before he left in 2015, Pirlo had also won two Supercoppa Italiana titles, and a Coppa Italia. Snapping up a player named by Bloomberg as the fifth best player in Europe (in 2013, the middle of his 2011-15 stint with Juventus) for absolutely nothing at all must be one of the best signings in recent history.
Eric Cantona leaving Leeds for rivals Manchester United
A top player, the outspoken Frenchman was also a turbulent character. In 1992 the final First Division title had gone the way of Leeds United, thanks in part to Cantona's goal-scoring prowess. In so doing they overhauled Manchester United, whose challenge for the title failed because they lacked bite up front. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson bought Cantona for a mere £1.2m in November 1992.
The transfer worked like a charm for the Red Devils, who won the first ever Premier League title in 1992-93 - and then won three of the four subsequent seasons. A lot of players were significant in Manchester United's 1990s golden age, and Cantona, the former star striker of rivals Leeds United, was one of them.
Thierry Henry reunited with Arsene Wenger
In retrospect, it seems weird to think this was ever controversial. Henry became one of the best-known and most popular players in not just the Arsenal team but the whole top flight of English football and spent nearly a decade with the London club. But that's hindsight talking.
At the time, Henry was playing for Juventus, and he wasn't happy. Sixteen appearances had yielded just three goals, and he felt uncomfortable both on and off the pitch. After a single season in Italy he rejoined Arsene Wenger (formerly his manager at Monaco), but there were plenty of doubts about the signing. Wenger's faith, however, was amply rewarded. Henry scored 26 goals in his first season and ended up scoring more than 250 for the team before he left. He was also a key part of the Invincibles, the Arsenal side of 2003-04 which became the first in over a century to go through the whole domestic league season without being beaten. Overall, not a bad signing.
Liverpool nabbed Philippe Coutinho
In 2010 Inter Milan's manager Rafael Benitez described Coutinho as the club's future. It didn't turn out that way. After failing to regularly make the first team, the talented Brazilian found himself on loan at Espanyol. At the start of 2013, Liverpool took advantage of the situation and paid just £8.5m for the midfielder. It turned out to be a very sound investment.
Come February 2015 and the man once touted as the future of Inter Milan scored the winning goal for Liverpool in the FA Cup final. Nicknamed 'the Magician' by the Liverpool faithful, his performances were starting to get a lot of attention. In 2018, Liverpool agreed to sell him to Barcelona for a tasty £105m, more than tenfold what they'd paid for him. But there is a little sting in the tail for Liverpool. It seems they won't be getting £80m of that fee, with the money going to a third party lender.
There are sure to be plenty of interesting and controversial moves ahead, not least whether Bale and Neymar stay with their teams (who seem keen to tip them overboard), and whether Manchester United can keep hold of the in-demand Paul Pogba.
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