Eurosport Roundtable: The most shocking football transfers of all time

Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano,Corinthians to West Ham, 2006 - Ridiculous on every conceivable level.

Nobody knew how or why cash-strapped West Ham managed to sign two of the world's most coveted young players - and when the truth emerged it was messy to say the least.

While Tevez's final-day heroics (and late-season surge) are understandably lauded, it's pretty absurd that they were so deep in relegation trouble in the first place.

None of which can alter the reality that this - a bizarre double coup announced out of the blue on deadline day - stands clear as the greatest WTF moment in transfer history.

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Jonathan Woodgate, Newcastle to Real Madrid, 2004 - Newcastle’s manager at the time, a stunned Sir Bobby Robson, called this bizarre transfer an “extreme, exceptional offer”.

The context of the move made it all the more ridiculous with the glass-legged Woodgate having played in just 37 out of a possible 128 games during his injury-plagued time at Newcastle.

Real offered him a four-year contract, and that was in spite of the fact that within minutes of the defender touching down in Madrid he apparently had to have a consultation with a specialist over a thigh injury. Woodgate failed to make a single appearance for Real in his first season in Spain.

He got off the mark in the end, however, in unforgettable style as he scored an own goal and got sent off inwhat we've rated as probably the worst debut ever.

No surprise, then, that in July 2007 he was voted the worst signing of the 21st century in a poll conducted by Marca.

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Sol Campbell, Tottenham to Arsenal, 2001 - If you remove all the emotion, this transfer makes absolute sense.

Campbell’s contract with Spurs had expired and he was free to leave on a Bosman ruling. He went on to win the Premier League twice and the FA Cup three times with Arsenal – something he would not have achieved at Tottenham

But football is not that simple. Campbell ignored the bitter rivalry between the North London clubs, not to mention nearly a decade spent at Spurs. It’s not as though the centre back didn’t have options either - he could have joined some of the leading sides in Europe.

Campbell was subjected to some terrible abuse from Tottenham fans after the move but later insisted he had no regrets. Whatever your take on it, you can’t say he’s not brave.

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Andy Carroll, Newcastle to Liverpool for £35m, 2011 - Can you imagine the delirium inside the Newcastle boardroom when the phone started ringing for the second time? ‘Liverpool here… we’ve decided to up our bid to £35m.’

It had to be a prank. Andy Carroll: the eighth most expensive footballer in history.

It wasn’t. Fernando Torres was poised to complete a £50m switch to Chelsea and Liverpool needed a striker. Desperately, it turned out.

But Carroll? A striker in a completely different mould to the departing Spaniard.

Those who predicted catastrophe were completely right: Carroll's time at Liverpool was shambolic, a complete disaster. Kenny Dalglish quickly learned that Andy Carroll + £15m ≠ Fernando Torres (or it didn’t in 2011, anyway…)

Not that it mattered: Liverpool had also signed Luis Suarez from Ajax in the same window and he proved to be one of the signings of the century. Apart from all the biting people and whatnot.

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Jurgen Klinsmann, Monaco to Tottenham Hotspur, 1994 - Tottenham were very much a mediocre side during the mid-nineties. They finished the 1993-94 in a disappointing 15th. Klinsmann, a World Cup winner in 1990, had just returned from the 1994 edition, where he had bagged five goals; he finished second behind Oleg Salenko and Hristo Stoichko, who scored six.

In other words, he was a bona fide world class player, even if he had his faults; namely a penchant for histrionics. And those antics meant that when in July of 1994 Klinsmann moved to Spurs, his arrival was met with some hostility. So, much so .

Yet when the former Monaco man made his Premier League debut against Sheffield Wednesday on August 20, he immediately ingratiated himself to Spurs faithful. Not only did he score an 82nd-minute winner in a 4-3 thriller, he also produced a self-deprecating 'dive' celebration which poked fun at his own predilection for going to ground.

It was hilarious, charming and intoxicating. He quickly won over the wider public, even non-Spurs fans. And so much so that the same Guardian writer, Andrew Anthony, later penned an article entitled 'Why I Love Jurgen Klinsmann'. Halcyon days.

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Xherdan Shaqiri, Inter Milan to Stoke City, 2015 - The human animal is extraordinary in what it can get used to. Shocking facts are usually only shocking for a few minutes. Yet sometimes something happens which is so far-fetched, so utterly absurd, that even repeating it over and over doesn't take away the strangeness.

For a demonstration of this, consider following the sentence:

Xherdan Shaqiri now plays for Stoke; Xherdan Shaqiri now plays for Stoke; Xherdan Shaqiri now plays for Stoke; Xherdan Shaqiri now plays for Stoke; Xherdan Shaqiri now plays for Stoke.

See? If anything it only gets less plausible every time you read it. Like watching an action replay and convincing yourself that this time round, it can't possibly happen.

Sure, I was flabbergasted when I read on Teletext in 1996 that Alan Shearer had just been sold for £15 million. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief in 2001 when an Alta Vista search about football revealed that Zidane had just been sold for £50m. And I spluttered out loud in the summer of 2013 when I read on this very website that a lanky Welshman who used to be his team's unlucky mascot had been priced up £85m.

But I honestly don't think it's ever been stranger than the push notification arriving on my phone this week with news that the 23-year-old 'Alpine Messi' had been napped by what is - with all due respect - the least sexy top flight club on the entire planet.

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The full background to this deal has only really come to light in recent years – as Sid Lowe recounted in his book on the Barcelona/Real Madrid rivalry, a reluctant Figo and Barca were essentially outmanoeuvred by the wily Florentino Perez – but there have surely been few transfers as shocking as Luis Figo’s £43m move between Spain's two behemoths back in 2000.

That summer Figo had firmly established himself as a Barcelona icon, a player whose importance to the side led teammate Pep Guardiola to compare him to Diego Maradona and whose quality would soon see him lift the Ballon d’Or. So to say it was a shock when he was unveiled as a Real Madrid player would be an understatement, as triumphant new Real president Perez took advantage of similar elections at the Nou Camp to make exactly the sort of statement in the transfer market he would soon become famous for, simultaneously kicking off the Galacticos era and sending a shocked Barca into a five-year tailspin.

Fifteen years later Figo still isn’t welcome in Barcelona, and the pig’s head that was thrown at him during his second return to the Nou Camp remains a defining image of the two clubs' fierce rivalry. Never forgotten, never forgiven.