Here, we list the most bizarre Premier League transfers in history to be signed, sealed and delivered in the January window.
January is a notoriously difficult month for Premier League clubs to get transfers over the line. At the midway point of the campaign, injuries begin to take their toll and reinforcements are needed to bolster squads up and down the country.
Bringing in the right quality is key and for many of the gargantuan transfers we see these days, it’s understandable why clubs shell out so much for the players they crave.
Despite the massive fees, there is logic to those deals. But then there is the transfer business that makes absolutely no sense or at the least, just cannot be easily justified.
There’s been plenty of head-scratching transactions down the years so we’ve narrowed it down to seven simply bizarre Premier League incoming and outgoing transfers.
Julien Faubert (West Ham United – Real Madrid, 2009)
We’ll start with an outgoing transfer that remains just absolutely bonkers.
Julien Faubert, who plied his trade with West Ham United in January 2009, nor his agent Yvan Le Mee could quite believe Real Madrid were after the right-back’s signature.
Faubert was certainly nothing special and nowhere near Galactico status. But Los Blancos manager at the time Juande Ramos was keen on his services after Faubert impressed for West Ham against Tottenham Hotspur a couple of times the season before.
Ramos was Spurs boss when Faubert put in those two decent displays and as such, if Antonio Valencia could not be signed from Wigan Athletic for Real Madrid, then Faubert was next on the shortlist.
As it turned out, Valencia was deemed too expensive and thus Madrid completed the stunning Faubert loan move on the eve of transfer deadline day – the Spanish giants even had the option to buy Faubert.
The Frenchman made two league appearances for the Bernabeu giants in the end and returned to West Ham in the summer.
Andy Carroll (Newcastle United – Liverpool, 2011)
Alongside Steven Gerrard, Sir Kenny Dalglish is the ultimate Liverpool legend and nobody can have a bad word to say about him and or anything he did for the Anfield giants.
Except when the Scotsman decided to sign Andy Carroll from Newcastle United in January 2011, which became the most expensive transfer involving a British player at the time.
With Fernando Torres heading out of Liverpool for Chelsea, the Reds pushed the panic button and brought Carroll in, reportedly against his own wishes.
Alas, Carroll claimed afterwards he couldn’t fully wrap his head around why he was on a helicopter to Liverpool to seal the infamous deal.
The Geordie was injured when the transfer was completed and hoped to fail his medical so he could continue his career with boyhood heroes Newcastle.
He got through it but perhaps Liverpool in hindsight wish the medical was failed too because Carroll went on to score just six Premier League goals in three years at Anfield.
Kim Kallstrom (Spartak Moscow – Arsenal, 2014)
Everything about this deal screams ‘why?’ On the face it in January 2014, Kim Kallstrom was a solid Swedish international midfielder playing well for Spartak Moscow – as such, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger became interested.
However, Kallstrom’s good form had been scuppered by breaking his back during an Abu Dhabi training camp with the Russian giants. Bizarrely enough, that did not stop Arsenal from pushing through a loan transfer on deadline day.
Wenger desperately needed midfield cover so what better do than sign an injured one to help alleviate the concerns?
Kallstrom made four Arsenal appearances for the rest of the 2013/14 campaign, with Wenger later admitting the Swede would never have been signed if the Frenchman had more time to look for cover.
Benjani (Portsmouth – Manchester City, 2008)
This is one is rather unique. Zimbabwean international Benjani had been ripping it up in the Premier League for Portsmouth throughout the first half of the 2007/08 season.
It alerted the attention of Man City in the January and a bid of £7.6m was accepted by Pompey for Benjani.
Even in 2008 before the money started rolling in, you’d think being on the cusp of making a big-money switch to the Etihad Stadium would be an exciting time for a footballer.
But Benjani clearly wasn’t buzzing with adrenaline because at the airport on his way to Manchester, he missed two flights due to falling asleep. It then made for a mad scramble to get his medical done at City when he finally arrived at the training ground 50 minutes before the window slammed shut.
City didn’t think the relevant paperwork was signed in time to bring Benjani in but the Premier League, after liaising with Portsmouth, decided enough was filed to eventually sanction the move in early February.
Ben Davies (Preston North End – Liverpool, 2021)
Andy Carroll to Liverpool was strange enough but what about Ben Davies and his bizarre Premier League transfer switch from Preston to Anfield in January 2021?
Manager Jurgen Klopp was desperate for defensive reinforcements after seeing Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez suffer injuries all at the same time.
So, a last-minute dash for Davies was secured for an initial fee of £500k. Celtic were interested in signing Davies on a pre-contract arrangement but Liverpool were too good to turn down.
But Davies never kicked a single competitive ball for Liverpool in the year-and-a-half spent at Anfield, so that was money flushed down the toilet – even if it wasn’t that much.
Was it though? It gets weirder because Liverpool, after sending Davies out on loan to Sheffield United, sold the central defender to Celtic’s arch-rivals Rangers in 2022 for a deal that could rise to £4m.
It’s a ridiculously good piece of business on Liverpool’s part but the whole saga is just mind-boggling and one for Davies to tell the grandkids one day.
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