What happened to star signings your club never made?

What the report says

BBC Sport Football published a look back at several high-profile transfers that came close to bringing star players to the Premier League but never happened. The piece centers on missed moves involving clubs such as Tottenham, Manchester City, Blackburn, Liverpool, Chelsea and Fulham, and uses those near-deals to show how transfer-window optimism can turn into long-term what-ifs.

Among the examples was Gift Orban, who was linked with Tottenham in 2023 after an explosive run of goals for Gent, but the reported £25m move fell through and he later moved on loan to Turkish club Amedspor. The article also revisited Kaka’s rejected switch to Manchester City in 2009, Rivaldo’s decision to join Olympiakos rather than Bolton, and Blackburn’s failed attempt to land a young Zinedine Zidane from Bordeaux in 1995.

BBC Sport also noted Steven Gerrard’s 2005 transfer request, when Chelsea were interested before he stayed at Liverpool, and Kylian Mbappe’s talks with Liverpool in 2017 before he joined Paris St-Germain. Another near-miss was Antoine Griezmann, whom Fulham targeted in 2014 while trying to avoid relegation, only for the club to spend the fee elsewhere. The article highlights how different football history might have looked if any of these moves had been completed.