5 transfers that fell through this summer
With the summer transfer window closing on Wednesday midnight, the transfer market is in full swing. Clubs are doing everything they can to strengthen their squads. While most clubs have done decent business this summer, many clubs are still preparing last-gasp bids in an attempt to land the signing of their target players.
This summer saw Paul Pogba move from Italian champions Juventus to his former club Manchester United for a world record fee of £89m. Juventus paid a hefty sum of £76m to acquire the services of Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli, making him the third most expensive player of all time.
While Pep Guardiola and Manchester City splashed £47m for 22-year-old John Stones and became world’s second most expensive defender.
But, as usual, there were some deals which did not materialize. Some transfers didn’t happen because the offered sum was not enough while some failed because the clubs decided that no amount was big enough to sell their prized assets. There were some moves which seemed imminent but fell through at the eleventh hour and some clubs even snatched a player away from their rival club.
We take a look at five transfers of this summer which eventually fell through.
#1 Andre Gomes to Real Madrid
Andre Gomes was part of the Portugal squad that won the Euro 2016 this summer. He made 77 appearances for Valencia over two seasons, scoring 9 goals. The 23-year-old was wanted by big clubs like Barcelona, Manchester City, Inter Milan but it was Real Madrid who were ahead in the race to sign the midfielder.
Gomes was viewed by Zidane as a long-term replacement for Luka Modric. Spanish newspaper Marca even published a report on their front page about Madrid being closer to sign Gomes.
Madrid were confident of negotiating with Valencia and bringing down their original asking price but Valencia did not budge and demanded another player as part of the deal. Zidane was not ready to splash €50 million on the 23-year-old midfielder, who did not fit in his starting eleven plans and the deal ultimately did not materialise.
Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona were also monitoring the Gomes situation closely. When Zidane pulled the plug on the deal, Barcelona swooped in and announced the signing of Gomes for a fee in the region of €35m plus add-ons.
The Portuguese player became the first player represented by ‘Super Agent’ Jorge Mendes to sign for Barcelona.