Kaka, Ronaldinho and Zidane: The Premier League transfers that never happened
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The transfer window really sparks the imagination of thefans. Whether it’s dreams of your club splashingthe cash or signing the new wonderkid!
But sometimes no matter how hard you try, the signings justdon’t happen.
We’ve racked our brains and come up with a few examples oftransfers that could have changed the course of Premier League history.
Kaka to Manchester City
Newly minted Man City were ready for a cash splurge in 2009.The ‘noisy neighbours’ wanted to make a big statement to rivals Man United andhad Kaka in their sights.
The Citizens chucked £108million at the former Ballon D’orwinner that had AC Milan reeling. Even in 2020 it would leave him sixth on thehighest all-time transfer record list.
Sadly, for City fans the Brazilian decided to stay in Milan.What a signing that would have been!
Rivaldo to Bolton Wanderers
Rivaldo at the Reebok Stadium? The year was 2004 and theTrotters were flying high with dreams of European football.
Boss Sam Allardyce was sculpting a team of high-classtechnicians including Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha and Ivan Campo – Rivaldowould have been the icing on on the cake.
The Brazilian was on board at one point; “I can see they have clear plans forBolton’s future and together I think we could get into Europe.”
But a sudden change of heart sawhim join Olympiakos. Oh, what could have been!
Zinedine Zidane to Blackburn Rovers
In 1995, just after winning the Premier League, Blackburnnearly got their hands on Zinedine Zidane.
But former owner Jack Walker had other ideas; “Why do wewant to sign Zidane, when we have Tim Sherwood?”. These now infamous words havegone down in folklore.
‘Zizou’ became arguably the best footballer of hisgeneration, winning Serie A, La Liga, the Champions League, the World Cup, theEuros and a plethora of individual honours including World Player of the Yearand the Ballon D’or.
The one that got away!
Ronaldinho to Arsenal
Arsenal have a long list of ‘could have been’s’ butthis one really could have become a game changer.
Former Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said he had already spoken to Ronaldinho’s agent when the player was 20 and still at Gremio. But work permit issues meant he couldn’t get international clearance to travel to London.
The Brazilian went on to sign for PSG and then become a revelation at Barcelona. Manchester United were left ruining missed opportunities too.
Andriy Shevchenko to West Ham United
Long before Harry Redknapp was leaning out of car windows discussingdeadline day deals, he was rejecting future Champions League winner AndriyShevchenko.
Sheva had come down to East London for a four-day trial in1994, running out against Barnet reserves.
Despite showcasing his talents, Redknapp wasn’t fullyconvinced;”He didn’t pull up any treesbut looked decent enough. But this was just after I had had all those problemswith the Romanian lads and I thought the last thing I needed was aUkrainian.”
The likes of Joe Cole and FrankLampard feeding Shevchenko could have been a mouth-watering sight for Hammersfans.
Robert Lewandowski to Blackburn Rovers
Sam Allardyce returns to our list with another ‘almost’moment. In 2010, Blackburn offered Lewandowski’s club Lech Poznan £4million forthe Polish striker’s services.
But a freak, volcanic ash eruption from Iceland halted airtravel and stopped Lewandowski from making it to Lancashire.
