Transfer deadline day can be one of the most exciting days of the season for your team, although that is not necessarily a good thing.
Sometimes, clubs are scrambling and make a crazy move in desperation while others are sitting back and relaxing ahead of tomorrow's training session knowing that their business is done.
Here, we look at five of the craziest moments to take place on transfer deadline day - starting with Manchester United's infamous signing of Dimitar Berbatov.
Berba Hijacked
We are unlikely to ever experience a day like September 1st, 2008, again, a sequence of events so chaotic and crazy it is still tempting to believe it was all just an elaborate fever dream.
The madness began with the sudden and shocking news that Manchester City had been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United group, instantaneously making the Blues the wealthiest club in the world.
With money no object, numerous bids were quickly made to ensure at least one statement signing was secured before the 11pm deadline.
A £32.5m bid for Robinho was accepted by Real Madrid while Spurs were equally agreeable to a similar sum for their prized striker Dimitar Berbatov.
That latter move however was where Sir Alex Ferguson drew the line.
Aware that the player was flying to Manchester to seal the deal with their newly-minted neighbours, United’s fearsome boss drove to the airport, meeting the bemused Bulgarian in arrivals. He then drove Berbatov to Carrington, sweet-talking him on route to bet on red instead.
Fax Or Fiction?
Swap deals have become a rarity in modern times, something we can all be a bit sad about.
In 2015 though, Manchester United and Real Madrid went old-school, agreeing to trade goalkeepers with David De Gea heading to Spain and Keylor Navas coming to the Premier League. A reputed £18m on top for the Reds sweetened the deal.
Come the evening of deadline day it was, to all intents and purposes, a done deal, and presumably the football transfer odds at that juncture were shorter than Jordan Pickford’s arms.
Only then a faulty fax machine at Carrington was blamed for the relevant paperwork not being sent in time and the deal collapsed.
Given how publicly delighted United were to retain their Player of the Season many have since suggested that *cue dramatic music* there was nothing wrong with the fax machine at all.
Purple Haze
Until a fateful, some might say iconic, moment occurred in 2014 it was common practise for Sky reporters to relay the latest developments on deadline day in front of an excitable group of supporters. All the better to provide some background colour.
That was until a still unidentified Evertonian took that brief too literally, bringing along a purple ‘recreational toy’ that he wiggled into the ear of unsuspecting journo Alan Irwin, busy at the time discussing Tom Cleverley’s imminent switch to Goodison from Manchester United.
A watching nation burst into uncontrollable hysterics. Imagine buying Tom Cleverley.
Torres, Suarez And Carroll
Only 2011 can rival its deadline day counterpart from three years earlier when it comes to last-minute drama, and like Manchester City’s supermarket sweep on winning the Lotto it chiefly involved one club, this time Liverpool.
Painfully aware that Chelsea had serious intentions on prising away their star striker Fernando Torres - a player the Reds had hoped to partner up with Ajax’s Luis Suarez, who they were deep in negotiations with - Liverpool pre-empted this seismic loss by looking north to Newcastle and enquiring about their pony-tailed pony Andy Carroll.
So began a whirlwind of activity that saw Surez sign for £22.8m, Carroll join for a premium sum of £35m, and Torres eventually have his transfer request granted on the absolute stroke of the deadline.
The fledgling online betting markets didn’t know what to make of it and the rest of us were gob-smacked, but to summarise: each club signed a dud for enormous fees but as consolation, one also signed a legend.
Road To Nowhere
Believing he was about to sign for QPR, forward Peter Odenwingie hopped into his car in January 2013, and gunned down the M1, leaving at home his wife and one-week old baby.
The West Brom striker had been convinced by his agent that the deal was done and he was needed at Loftus Road to complete a medical.
On arriving in West London, however, the Nigerian was perplexed to discover that the Baggies had complicated the transfer late on, insisting that Junior Hoilett was included in part-exchange. Hoilett had no intention of leaving the Hoops.
Odenwingie’s evening was further blighted by QPR staff refusing him entrance, resulting in him waiting forlornly in the car park. To the best of our knowledge, he’s still there.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
