The Great Debate: Who is the best Deadline Day signing? | OneFootball

It’s Deadline Day again, and for all the talk of panic buying and trolley dashing some deadline day deals tend to work out excellently.

Here are our favourites from down the years …

Lewis Ambrose

Spare a thought for Blackburn Rovers, who concede a goal scored by Everton’s Mikel Arteta on 27 August 2011 and another scored by Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta three weeks later.

The midfielder took a paycut to join an Arsenal side that had just lost 8-2 at Old Trafford as he looked to fulfil his dream of playing in the Champions League. Considering Arsenal got him to agree to that paycut, the £10m fee was also far from extortionate for a player who went on to captain the club to FA Cup success and, perhaps most impressively, is now rebuilding the team in his own image from the dugout.

This deadline day deal absolutely paid off in the long run.

Dan Burke

One of the most controversial transfers in Premier League history also proved to be one of the best. Deadline day in 2006 saw Ashley Cole swap Arsenal for Chelsea with just £5m changing hands between the two clubs and William Gallas moving in the opposite direction.

A year earlier Cole had been fined £100k by the Premier League for an illicit meeting with then Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon in a London hotel — or what was known in those days as a “tapping-up scandal”.

After eventually moving to Stamford Bridge, the England left-back went on to win eight major honours, including a Premier League title and the Champions League.

Richard Buxton

Even by the comparatively modest transfer deals of the mid-2000s, Manchester United’s capture of Wayne Rooney was an absolute bargain after the Everton prodigy had set the international scene alight with England at Euro 2004.

Sir Alex Ferguson would later recall how Toffees chairman Bill Kenwright emotionally rang his mother during negotiations on the eventual £27m switch to lament how the Old Trafford club were “stealing our boy”.

Rooney more than repaid that eight-figure outlay with 16 trophies in the next 17 years, including four Premier League titles and a Champions League, as well as becoming the Red Devils’ all-time leading goal scorer.

Alex Mott

I’m cheating here slightly and going for two deadline day moves over one.

But in terms of the amount of jaws dropped, it’s hard to beat West Ham getting Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in 2006.

The Argentine duo shocked fans all over the world as they left Corinthians to join the east London side and team up with the likes of Matthew Etherington, John Pantsil and Nigel Reo-Coker.

Mascherano struggled during his time at Upton Park and eventually left on loan at Liverpool but Tevez became a folk hero to the Hammers as he scored on the final day of the season at Manchester United to keep them in the Premier League.

Just don’t mention it to Sheffield United fans.

Joel Sanderson-Murray

Liverpool fans of a certain age will still remember the heartbreak of seeing Fernando Torres pictured in a Chelsea shirt on deadline day in 2011.

Thankfully, a certain Luis Suárez checked in at Anfield on the same day to soften the blow. The Uruguayan netted on his debut against Stoke City a few days later and went on to score a further 81 goals for the club in 132 appearances.

He may have only won the EFL Cup in 2012 during his time on Merseyside but his 31 goal season in 2013/14 which nearly brought home the title has him down as one of the best players to wear red in the eyes of many Liverpool supporters.

Pádraig Whelan

It is hard to look past the summer 2006 late deadline move from Real Madrid to bring in a young defender from Sevilla by the name of Sergio Ramos.

The €27m (most of which was gained by the sale of Michael Owen to Newcastle) proved a steal as he established himself as an all-time club great with 671 appearances, over 100 goals (from defence), 22 trophies and erm, just the 26 red cards!