Former Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid stars are among the players who came close to completing bizarre moves to the likes of Leeds United, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers.
The likes of Pep Guardiola, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff have all been involved in some of the best ‘nearly-transfers’ you could imagine.
Every club has a story like these, and it was impossible to include them all, but Blackburn Rovers really do seem to have more than most.
Pep Guardiola
Ahead of Manchester City’s FA Cup clash with Wigan Athletic, Guardiola admitted that he almost joined the Latics upon their promotion to the Premier League in 2005, but he was deemed not good enough to compete for a place in midfield with Jimmy Bullard and Graham Kavanagh.
“I was not good enough, that is the truth,” Guardiola said. “I was old, really old!
“I knocked on the door, I tried to come here to play in English football, but I was not able.
“The same happened here at Manchester City, when I came here with Stuart Pearce. They were so clever! I was not good enough.”
READ: Hussein Yasser: Pep said he’d rather retire than sign for long-ball Man City
Ronaldinho
Blackburn Rovers have a pretty good history when it comes to ridiculous transfer rumours, but let’s start with Ronaldinho.
Venky’s made the former World Player of the Year an offer of £20million over three years to move to Lancashire from AC Milan.
“He is keen to play in the EPL and I think that goes in our favour,” Venky’s chair Anuradha Desai told BBC Radio Lancashire.
Desai also confirmed Blackburn were hopeful of signing David Beckham and Damien Duff (again). We don’t need to tell you whether any of these players moved to Ewood Park.
Virgil van Dijk
While managing Cardiff City, Neil Warnock revealed he was convinced not to sign Van Dijk at Crystal Palace after his chief scout insisted the defender was too slow.
“I think he’s still in a job as well,” Warnock said of the scout.
“We could have bought him at Palace for £6m, but my chief scout thought he was too slow”
Neil Warnock on Virgil van Dijk…
Read: https://t.co/Aaf3Hun7lL pic.twitter.com/2VEZAmc9rE
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 26, 2018
Diego Maradona
Maradona had a remarkable flirtation with Yorkshire on two occasions throughout his career.
After a scouting trip to Argentina in 1978, Sheffield United manager Harry Haslam urged the Second Division club to sign a 17-year-old Maradona in a £200,000 deal…
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