10 Most Memorable Failed Transfer Sagas

7. Luka Modric €“ Spurs To Chelsea

Downing tools and sulkily refusing to play for the club that pays your wages in order to push through a transfer is a high-risk strategy, but quite common in the world of transfer sagas. The likes of Dimitar Berbatov, Clint Dempsey and Yohan Cabaye, amongst others, have employed this sneaky tactic in a desperate scramble to engineer their transfer away, and in the summer of 2011, so too did Luka Modric. Following another commandeering season for Spurs, in which he helped to guide them to a Champions League quarter-final, Carlo Ancelotti€™s Chelsea made their interest in the midfielder known with a £22 million bid. His finger on the pulse, Modric wasted no time in issuing a €˜come-and-get-me-plea€™, indicating that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy was ready to listen to offers.

''I would like to go to Chelsea. A lot of players would like to go there and play for Chelsea because it is one of the best clubs in the world, and so do I. Spurs will always have a place in my heart but my experiences in the Champions League have left me with the desire for more.€™€™ €“ Luka Modric, June 2009.

Subsequently, Levy rejected the bid, before their London counterparts returned with an upped offer of £27 million €“ once again, Spurs found the offer derisory. Insisting that they wouldn€™t sell the Croatian playmaker at any price and with Roman Abramovich so accustomed to always getting what he wanted, something had to give.

On the opening day of the season, Luka Modric was driven to committing the cardinal sin €“ a move that Dimitar Berbatov had made in a bid to force Levy€™s hand three years previously, and refused to take his place in the starting line-up. With his €˜head not in the right place€™, Manchester United knocked around a forlorn Spurs side, before Chelsea returned with a massive £40 million offer on transfer deadline day. With all his fingers and toes crossed, Modric was ultimately left disappointed, as the transfer saga ended as it had continued, with Levy once again rejecting the bid.