#7 Paul Gascoigne (Summer 1988)
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When your manager goes out on holiday safe in the knowledge that the signing was secured, you don't expect too much to go wrong. Unfortunately for Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson, something did go wrong and English football had to wait for a few more years before United started dominating the league.
In 1988, Paul Gascoigne was all set for a move away from his boyhood club, Newcastle United and the Red Devils emerged as front-runners along with Tottenham Hotspur. United thought they beat Spurs to the signing of the mercurial playmaker but Ferguson's holiday was rudely interrupted with the news that Gascoigne had signed for Spurs.
The Scot explained in his first autobiography how Spurs beat United to his signature. "The explanation of the late switch was said to be that Paul's feelings were swung when Tottenham bought a house for his parents," Ferguson wrote. They also chipped in with a car for his dad and a sunbed for his sister as well and while that might not seem like much now, it proved to be too hard to turn down for Gazza who made the move and proclaimed, rather unconvincingly that his "heart was always set on Spurs".
