Top FIVE Bizarre Reasons Why Transfers Collapsed

There are many reasons why clubs end up pulling the plug on transfers; all of which are pretty easy to understand.

Disagreements over transfer payments, agent fees, personal terms as well a change of the heart from the player are all legitimate reasons why a deal can fall through.

They are certainly not common occurrences but there is a category of transfers where the explanation given for the collapse can defy all logic.

Press the next page as we count down the strangest reasons why transfers failed to happen.

5) Fax Machine Issues

David De Gea’s move to Real Madrid collapsed on deadline day in August 2015. A £29m fee had been agreed, with Keylor Navas also agreeing to make the switch the other way.

However, the deal wasn’t registered in time with FIFA, with United blamed for not faxing documents to the world’s governing body before the transfer window closed.

4) The Rogue Lawyers

Rodrigo Garcia Lucas, Alvaro Reig Gurrea and Francisco Salinas Mezquita, leading solicitors for law firm Laffer Abogados, turned up at La Liga’s administrative offices to finalise Ander Herrera’s move to Manchester United in the summer of 2013.

The problem was, nobody knew who hired them. United denied any knowledge, as did Herrera, and the transfer collapsed in acrimony. The player did, however, complete the switch to Old Trafford a year later.

3) Cowboy Boots

Nottingham Forest had agreed a fee to sign midfielder Gary McAllister from Leicester City in 1990 but the deal collapsed following a meeting between the player and manager Brian Clough.

McAllister is said to have turned up to his first meeting with Clough in cowboy boots, which did not go down well, to say the least. Forest pulled out of the move soon afterwards.

2) A Volcano

Lech Poznan striker Robert Lewandowski was due to fly to England to seal a move to Blackburn Rovers in 2010 but the move was scuppered by the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull.

The ash cloud that resulted from the eruption grounded all flights, stalling his switch long enough so that Borussia Dortmund could swoop in and sign him. The rest, as they say, is history.

1) Eyesight Problems

George Boyd’s move to Nottingham Forest from Peterborough United in January 2013 was cancelled after the forward failed his medical, but the reason that Forest gave was quite something.

The Championship club pulled out of the transfer because Boyd had bad eyesight; a decision which left Peterborough’s chairman Darragh MacAnthony furious, calling it a “disgrace”.

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