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#3 Demba Ba to Stoke City (2011)
When Senegalese forward Demba Ba scored an impressive six goals in just 17 appearances for 1899 Hoffenheim in the first half of the 2010-11 season, he immediately piqued the interest of Premier League sides looking for more goals.
Supposedly, West Ham were interested, and looking to force the move through, Ba refused to travel to a winter training camp with Hoffenheim.
Hoffenheim’s immediate response was to threaten to fire the striker, warn him about potential legal action, and attempt to ban him from moving for six months. When those options proved to be impossible though, the German side reneged.
Ba was allowed to talk to several clubs, and it seemed like Stoke City were his preferred destination. A £7.1m fee was agreed, and Ba accepted personal terms too. However, at the last minute, the Potters withdrew from the deal.
Reportedly, Ba’s medical had shown a potential issue with the striker’s knee, and to the dismay of Stoke boss Tony Pulis, his club refused to let the transfer go ahead.
Instead, with his position at Hoffenheim untenable, the Senegalese ended up heading to the club that had shown an interest in the first place – West Ham.
The move went through this time, and Ba ended up starring in the Premier League for the Hammers, and eventually Newcastle and finally Chelsea. And incredibly, the supposed knee issue never reared its head again.
#4 David de Gea to Real Madrid (2015)
By 2015, Real Madrid were no strangers to poaching the Premier League’s best talent, as the Spanish giants had taken David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric in the years leading up to that point.
And so when they set their eyes on Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, it seemed likely that the Spaniard would be heading back to the country of his birth before the transfer window closed in the summer of that year.
After a long-winded series of negotiations lasted the entire summer, it appeared that Los Blancos finally had their man. A reported £29m fee was agreed, with Real keeper Keylor Navas heading the other way to Old Trafford.
However, at the very last moment, the deal collapsed entirely. And incredibly, just eleven days after the window closed, De Gea inked a new four-year deal with the Red Devils. So what went wrong?
Well, apparently, the brinksmanship on behalf of both sides meant that they simply left it too late. Reportedly, the needed paperwork didn’t go through to La Liga’s HQ, despite United claiming they had time stamps on it when it was sent.
Incredibly, Real later confirmed that they had received the paperwork – but it had come through too late, and the blame lay with a faulty fax machine!
Whether this is the full truth remains unknown, but at any rate, De Gea never made his move back to Spain, and remains United’s #1 to this day.
#5 Robert Lewandowski to Blackburn Rovers (2010)
After scoring a scarcely-believable 34 goals in 31 appearances for Bayern Munich last season – and then following that with 23 in 16 games during the current campaign – there’s an argument that Robert Lewandowski is the best striker on the planet right now.
However, had a mooted deal over a decade ago not fallen through, the Polish hitman could well have been plundering goals in the Premier League rather than the Bundesliga.
So what was this deal? Incredibly, it would’ve seen Lewandowski move to Blackburn Rovers, a side who are now languishing in the EFL Championship.
At the time, Blackburn were Premier League stalwarts, and under the reign of Sam Allardyce, they’d finished in 10th place in the 2009-10 campaign.
However, goals were a serious issue for Allardyce’s side, with midfielder David Dunn scoring just nine to finish as their top scorer.
The club clearly needed a new striker, and so Lewandowski – who was coming off an 18-goal season at Lech Poznan – was identified. Allardyce went to watch the striker in action and was sold on his abilities, and so the clubs drew up a plan and came to an agreed fee of £3m.
But disaster then struck. The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted, leaving ash clouds hanging over Europe and causing chaos to international travel. Flights in and out of the UK were suspended, and so Lewandowski was unable to head to Ewood Park to seal his transfer.
Instead, the Polish striker headed to Germany with Borussia Dortmund – for the same £3m fee agreed with Blackburn – and the rest is history.
