The final day of the transfer window always throws up a few surprises which means that anything is perceived as being possible. After, all who would have thought that Andy Carroll would have transferred to to Liverpool from Newcastle for £35m in January or that on August 31 2008 that Robinho would sensationally join Manchester City in place of recently established European power Chelsea?
What it also means, however, is that a whole raft of nonsense is peddled unwittingly by news outlets everywhere – with this very own website occasionally being suckered in too – with the introduction of Twitter creating a whole new forum for misinformation. Here are some of those stories that were wide of the mark or just downright ridiculous.
Kaka to Tottenham
At about 8:30pm, word began to filter through that Tottenham were on the verge of completing a huge deal. Twitter was ablaze with speculation until a concsensus was reached – Real Madrid superstar Kaka was about to swap the Santiago Bernabeu for White Hart Lane. It was so unbelievable that even the hyperbolic enthusiast that is Sky Sports’ Jim White looked sceptical. Thankfully the rumour had little time to gather any real momentum as an interview with Harry Redknapp soon put that one to bed. And the huge transfer Tottenham were actually working on? Gary Cahill. And no, that didn’t happen either.
Eden Hazard to Arsenal
The transfer of the Belgian sensation to Arsenal is far more plausible than the one above especially with Arsene Wenger having previously sung the player’s praises publicly. An approach was certainly expected but when Hazard announced on Twitter that he had submitted a transfer request in order to force through the move, it seemed inevitable that the Lille man would soon be plying his trade in London. That was until it was deduced that the said Twitter account was actually a fake. Hazard remains in France – until January at least – where he will link up with new team mate Joe Cole who has arrived on loan from Liverpool.
Andy Carroll / Hulk to Anzhi Makhachkala
Big-spending Anzhi have certainly made a splash in the transfer market of late. Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos is winding down his playing days there while Samuel Eto’o is picking up a princely sum after completing a £20m move from Inter Milan. Yuri Zhirkov has also joined from Chelsea but it was on deadline day that the real megabucks seemed about to flow. Intriguing rumours emanated that the Russian club were about to offer Liverpool a staggering £41m for Andy Carroll and that close to £80m had been offered to Porto in return for their striker Hulk. While both transfers involved insane amounts of money, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these rumours was that they were not true such has been the largesse of the Dagestan-based club.
James Milner to Liverpool
Another from the list of believeable rumours doing the rounds on deadline day. Milner looks surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium with a regular place on the substitutes’ bench the best he can hope for after the arrivals of Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero. So when Stewart Downing tweeted that his England international colleague had left Fabio Capello’s training camp in order to seal a move to Liverpool it seemed to make some sense even if the Merseysiders have enough midfielders to stock two Premier League teams. Unfortunately for Milner, the curse of the fake Twitter account had struck again though quite why anyone would choose to impersonate Downing is anyone’s guess.
Owen Hargreaves to Manchester City
Possibly the most unbelievable transfer rumour of the day linked the most injury prone footballer of the 21st century to the richest club in the world that boasted a squad already crammed with defensive midfielders. Unbelievable that is, until it actually came true.
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