ifonlys

All the surprising nearly transfers or situations that have ever been in football

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Burnley missed out on signing a 17-year-old Michael Essien for free! They could only pay youth players £60 pw.

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Sir Alex Ferguson maintains that his biggest regret was not signing Paul Gascoigne in 1988. Instead he joined Spurs.

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Steven Gerrard came very close to joining Chelsea in 2004 but chose to stay and work with new manager Rafael Benítez.

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Yaya Touré had a trial with Arsenal in 2003. Wenger was keen to sign him but he failed to get a work permit.

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Zinedine Zidane nearly signed for Blackburn in 1995. Rovers' chairman said "why do you want to sign Zidane when we've got Tim Sherwood?"

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Neymar nearly moved to West Ham in 2010. The Hammers offered €16 million for the then 18-year-old.

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In 1978 Sheffield United refused to pay £200,000 for a then-17-year-old Diego Maradona.

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Robert Lewandowski nearly joined Blackburn in 2010 but the Iceland ash cloud stopped the move.