Owen to Brighton, Beckham to QPR, Ronaldinho to Blackburn and more ridiculous transfer bids
Every transfer window there is at least one rumour that makes you choke on your cereal and today's reports that perennial substitute, Michael Owen, fancies swapping Manchester for seaside Brighton did just that. Here, talkSPORT takes a look at some audacious transfer bids that were never going to come off…
RONALDINHO TO BLACKBURN ROVERS
Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Blackburn... Spot the odd one out. A two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, Ronaldinho must have been gobsmacked to be linked with Steve Kean's relegation battlers in January 2011. Rovers fans never quite bought into the Venky's marquee signing vision and, unsurprisingly, Ronaldinho pitched up at Flamengo in Brazil, a mere week after being linked to the English side.
MARCOS SENNA TO Swansea
Midfield enforcer Senna was a key component of Spain's Euro 2008 victory, There were supposed conversations between the player, his agents and Swans boss Brendan Rodgers in summer 2011, but no one was particularly surprised when he re-signed for Villarreal for an 11th season. A move to the Premier League new boys would have been astounding, but never looked likely.
JUAN ROMAN RIQUELME TO Everton
The diminutive play-maker lit up La Liga with Villarreal and was even nominated for the 2005 World Player of the Year. Hype took hold of Evertonians as the Argentine was linked with their top four challenge in 2007 and a gaffe on the Blues' website even saw them announce Riquelme's arrival. The only place he arrived was back home, at Boca Juniors.
RIVALDO TO Bolton
In 2004, Bolton were boasting the likes of Ivan Campo, Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha in their side and 'Big' Sam Allardyce was something of an expert at getting the best out of ageing legs. Startlingly, this nearly involved the former World Footballer of the Year and World Cup winner swapping fashion capital Milan for the Reebok Stadium, but the audacious transfer never materialised and Rivaldo ended up at Olympiakos in Greece.
DAVID BECKHAM TO QPR
Despite his repeated mantra of 'Manchester United is the only English club for me', the former England captain was keenly sounded out by QPR. Following the mould set by Venky's at Blackburn, QPR's new owner Tony Fernandes voiced his desire to make a 'Hollywood' signing. No Hoops fan ever bought this one, though, and Becks duly signed a new contract to stay with LA Galaxy.
JOHAN CRUYFF TO DUMBARTON
Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players to ever grace the game, a contractual disagreement with Ajax in 1982 saw the Dutch master of 'total football' bizarrely linked to the Scottish side. In eight place in the Scottish First Division at the time, it remains incredible that Cryuff even considered swapping Amsterdam for Boghead (the rather foreboding name of Dumbarton's ground). It proved to be such a difficult decision for Cryuff that he almost immediately joined Ajax's arch rivals, Feyernood, and led them to their first league title in a decade.
Words: Dom Bryant