What the fax? How Man City nearly messed up the Robinho transfer 📠 | OneFootball

The summer transfer deadline day of 2008 will always be fondly remembered by Manchester City fans.

It was the day the club were taken over by Sheikh Mansour and the club’s new owner wasted no time at all in trying to land a marquee signing.

Dimitar Berbatov was heavily linked but it was Robinho who eventually made a shock move to the City of Manchester Stadium for a then-British record £32.5m fee.

However, a story in The Athletic on Monday reveals how City very nearly botched the deal.

As is bafflingly still the protocol when it comes to transfers, City needed to fax through their offer to Real Madrid but the first time they sent it, they put the paper in the wrong way up and all the LaLiga club received was a blank fax.

Luckily City sent it through correctly at the second attempt and the deal went through. Never has the phrase “Typical City” been so apt.

Robinho scored on his debut against Chelsea (whom he’d been heavily linked with prior to his move to City) and went on to score 16 times in 53 appearances for the club, before returning to Santos on loan and eventually moving permanently to AC Milan in 2010.

The Brazilian isn’t the best player to have worn the sky blue shirt, but his arrival in Manchester paved the way for signings like Carlos Tevez, David Silva and Yaya Touré, and all the success the club would enjoy in the years that followed.