10 Game-Changing Premier League Summer Transfers

Spurs fans probably want to forget the summer of 2013. The club narrowly missed out on a Champions League spot the season before, and the off-season was an opportunity to move on. But Gareth Bale had his sights on leaving the club, and this meant it was going to be a long few months for the White Hart Lane faithful.

After six years of lighting up the Premier League with his faster-than-light pace and intricate technical ability, Bale couldn't face another year not playing Champions League football. And so followed a summer of protracted negotiations, as Bale and his team tried to secure a big-money move to Real Madrid.

The story played out in painfully slow fashion that summer. Each news item on the deal must've been like death by a thousand cuts for Spurs fans, who just wanted the whole thing done and dusted. Eventually, on deadline day no less, the transfer was settled for a then world-record fee of £85.1 million.

Spurs fans were no doubt glad that the Bale transfer saga was finally over. And imagine their reaction when they realised that £26 million of that transfer money had been spent on signing Roberto Soldado. Oh dear.