5 craziest Deadline Day stories from Man Utd’s dodgy fax machine to BabelCopter

Transfer deadline day has thrown up some truly memorable stories over the years.

Plenty of deals have gone through with just seconds to spare after some brilliant gaffes.

Others, meanwhile, have not been as successful, leaving some parties extremely embarrassed while the other club fumes at their misfortune.

Peter Odemwingie driving across the country only to be refused entry is definitely up there, especially as the Sky Sports cameras picked him up and caught him with a golden interview.

But there are plenty of others in there too – so here are the five craziest transfer deadline day stories we can recall.

Man Utd's dodgy fax machine

David de Gea would not still be a Manchester United player if it weren’t for the club’s dodgy fax machine.

The Spain goalkeeper was all set to join Real Madrid after a long running saga in the 2015 summer window.

However, the deal collapsed because United were unable to file the correct paperwork due to their faulty fax machine.

Might be time to move to e-mail, guys.

#BabelCopter trends on Twitter

#BabelCopter started trending on Twitter after Ryan Babel was pictured in a helicopter over London amid rumours of a move to Tottenham or West Ham in 2010.

News went quiet over a potential move while Babel was in the air though, and he was soon spotted landing in Liverpool again.

Babel has revealed exactly what happened since, and it’s a long story, but he was basically told that he was being sold to West Ham on a five-year deal rather than loaned out for the rest of the season in exchange for Carlton Cole, which he refused.

Poor Peter Odemwingie

Perhaps the most iconic deadline day story still discussed, Peter Odemwingie drove from the Midlands to west London when he thought West Brom were going to sell him to QPR.

Jumping the gun, it turned out that QPR hadn’t managed to sell Junior Hoilett, meaning a deal was longer on the table.

That didn’t stop the cameras picking Odemwingie up though, as he tried to talk up a move, before eventually being disciplined by the Baggies.

Benjani falls asleep at the airport

Portsmouth striker Benjani almost missed out on a move to Manchester City after falling asleep at Southampton airport and missing two separate flights to the north west.

Pompey’s chief executive Peter Storrie admitted that the whole situation became a “fiasco” because of Benjani’s sleepiness.

But the paperwork was all submitted in time to allow the Zimbabwean striker to complete a pretty bizarre transfer in the end.

Robinho’s Man Utd mistake

Manchester City became one of the richest clubs on transfer deadline day in 2008, meaning they had a load of money to spend but very little time to do so.

Chelsea were eyeing a move for Real Madrid forward Robinho at the time, but Mark Hughes managed to snatch him away from the title chasers £32.5m in City’s first of many whopping transfers over the years.

The Brazilian wanted to join the Blues, and hadn’t even heard of Manchester City at the time, thinking he was joining United instead. Hilarious.

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