The 10 Most Annoying Transfer Sagas of the 21st Century

By: Daryl | March 4th, 2009

Real Madrid’s presidential elections have been announced for July 5th. Which means at least one potential president will promise to deliver Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernanbeu, and the world’s longest running transfer saga will be brought back to life like the unkillable zombie it is.

Clearly, CR to RM is the most drawn out and annoying transfer in human history. If you were to make a list of the top 10 most annoying transfer sagas of the 21st Century, C-Ron would sit proudly on top. I know this because I just did, and he does.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo, Man Utd to Real Madrid
The worst thing is that it’s not even over yet. Get ready for more this summer.

2. David Beckham, LA Galaxy to AC Milan
Just the for crushing inevitability of the loan becoming permanent, and MLS’ failure to put up a decent fight.

3. Patrick Vieira, Arsenal to Real Madrid
Seemed like every summer, Arsenal’s main man was heading for Bernabeu. And then he joined Juventus.

4. Steven Gerrard, Liverpool to Chelsea
Before Liverpool won the Champions League, this really looked like happening. And the reasons for it being called off at the last minute are a little bit murky.

5. Kaka, AC Milan to Man City
Just for the sheer silliness of it.

6. Gareth Barry, Aston Villa to Liverpool
‘Pool wouldn’t meet Villa’s asking price. And yet they still expected Martin O’Neill to cave.

7. Dimitar Berbatov, Spurs to Man Utd
Was always going to happen. But it took all summer and then all of August to get done.

8. Zinedine Zidane, retirement to MLS
Zizou retired from football in 2006, and yet the rumours linking him to the USA continued for the next two years.

9. Andrei Arshavin, Zenit to North London
Fist it was Spurs, and then it was Arsenal. And then they couldn’t figure out who needed to be paid what. And if it hadn’t snowed, the deal might not have gone though at all. Also, AA really wanted to go to Barcelona.

10. Carlos Tevez & Javier Mascherano, Corinthians, West Ham, MSI, Liverpool, Man Utd
Transfers from one club to another are complicated enough, but this introduced a third party into the equation. And the mess that was created by their move to West Ham is still being untangled, with Tevez’ future at Man Utd being undecided.

Apologies for the Premier League centric nature of this list. I’m not sure whether this just reflects the rumours that I read, or whether the Premier League just has longer and more torturous transfer sagas than all other leagues combined.

Any more to add to this list?