The weirdest reasons football transfers failed to happen – ‘Why do you want Zidane when we’ve got Sherwood?’
Endless amounts of transfer deals never come to fruition every single window despite hours and hours of negotiations.
Often money serves as the explanation for a failed transfer, with clubs either not agreeing on a fee or the player feeling his demands are not being met.
But sometimes, the real reason is far more complex. For example, why Diego Maradona never ended up at Bramall Lane is a fascinating tale.
Here talkSPORT.com takes a look at the weirdest examples of why certain deals never got over the line ahead of the January window...
In 1995, Blackburn Rovers were on the crest of a wave, with owner Jack Walker’s dream realised.
Rovers beat Manchester United to the title and a bright future seemed to be ahead of them with Zinedine Zidane on Kenny Dalglish’s wishlist.
Zizou was impressing in France with Bordeaux and emerging on the international scene when Blackburn made their move.
Christophe Dugarry was also part of a potential deal for the Ewood Park outfit as they looked to complement Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton.
Blackburn owner Walker, though, had other ideas and despite the duo flying to the club for talks, they were never signed.
“Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”, was what Walker reportedly said about the transfer.
Zidane and Dugarry spent another campaign with Bordeaux before joining Juventus and AC Milan, respectively.
Neil Warnock almost signed the Liverpool centre-back only for Crystal Palace to pull the plug on a deal due to fears he lacked pace.
The veteran manager wanted to bring Van Dijk to Selhurst Park from Celtic in 2014 but the deal was blocked.
“Van Dijk – I’m delighted he’s playing like he is,” said Warnock.
“We could have bought him at Palace for £6million but my chief scout told me
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