Signings that we didn't see coming.......

dogwithabone

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Apr 27, 2014
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The Lukaku deal has certainly taken us by surprise and I was trying to recall a few others that came right out of the blue......

I can actually remember where I was (waiting at a temporary red light in a village close to home !!) when I heard the news on the radio we'd signed Cantona, that's the most memorable I guess because that just didn't seem to fit at all at the time. How wrong !

Andy Cole was another that was announced right out of the blue without any talk beforehand or any declaration of interest from us. Seem to have an image in my mind of Keegan on the steps at St James' announcing to the media a deal had been done.

Sheringham surprised me too, totally unexpected.
 
I think a lot of transfers under David Gill were pretty well hidden from media outlets. I remember it would often be the case of papers only catching wind of a transfer a day or two before they were pictured in the kit.
 
Cantona was the big one.

RVP too as i dont think anyone really believed it would happen.
 
Sunny Jim said:
Yep, both Anderson and Nani were like "wtf?!"
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I think there were a few rumours of Nani before it happened.

The problem is for probably the past 4-5 years, social media has resulted in a lot more clickbait rumours. Going back to years ago isn't really comparable to today.
 
Ando, Obertan, Owen, David Bellion, Buttner, Bebe... I feel I am doing something wrong :wenger:
 
Schneiderlin? He was doing medical same time with Schweinsteiger but no one noticed. :lol:

edit: or was it Falcao with Schneiderlin?
 
I remember being really surprised by Michael Owen
 
Apart from those already stated, Laurent Blanc, Prunier, Henning Berg...Diego Forlan as well, if I am not wrong he was about to sign for another club but we hijacked the deal...Massimo Taibi is another one. Tim Howard.
 
Anderson, Phil Jones, Falcao, Bailly, Lukaku are the ones I remember.
 
I remember being so shocked when Falcao signed. That came out of nowhere. Owens when he signed also surprised me.
 
I remember a double swoop for Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen as a real shock at the time. Leeds were a powerhouse slightly beginning to fade in that era but even so that was a stunning piece of business by us.
 
David May was a surprise at the time. Good, solid defender but not one you'd have naturally linked to us.
 
I didn't remember reading anything regarding Ashley Young before we signed. That was a surprise.
 
Really didn't see us signing Lukaku, always thought he was more or less a done deal for Chelsea. Falcao was a surprise since we got him on the last few days of the transfer window out of nowhere.

Another big surprise was Martial. Had never seen him play, only knew that Chelsea were interested in him. Signed him out of nowhere in the final days of the summer.
 
dogwithabone said:
Veron was the most dragged out transfer in the history of football ! That went on for about three months.
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Hey, I was young! I remember being away in Lanzarote at the time and picking up a paper and seeing we had signed him. That was a more innocent time for transfers.
 
Lindelof was out the blue for me in a sense. There were Portuguese sources, but I genuinely thought it was just another Gaitan. When we actually announced it, I was like "wait, what?" Kind of like if a kid told you it could fly, then actually did.

As for completely out the blue, Radamel Falcaooooo!
 
Holy shit completely forgot about Martial too.

Quite a few signing in Woody's reign have been complete surprises.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Hey, I was young! I remember being away in Lanzarote at the time and picking up a paper and seeing we had signed him. That was a more innocent time for transfers.
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Haha.....I seem to recall being away twice that summer about 8 weeks apart and I remember thinking the deal would be done when I got back from the first week away.....it still hadn't been done when I got back from the second holiday about two months later !
 
Didn't come out of the blue, but I thought there was no way it was happening when it was first reported in the summer of 2002 Fergie wanted Rio. Dragged on for a bit one the World Cup was over, but not nearly as much as other deals.
 
Anderson - we knew we were getting a deal done for Nani but no one knew anything about Anderson

Tevez - same summer as the above, IIRC no links all summer then it blew up one evening (when the next day's papers started to hit) and Fergie confirmed our interest the next day in a press conference

Falcao - good shout to all those who mentioned it

Martial - another good shout

Lukaku - obviously
 
Veron, Andy Cole , Alan Smith , Henrik Larsson , Teddy Sheringham, Cantona
 
We were linked with Lukaku from March. It wasn't out of the blue. Yes the shift in momentum was sudden but it wasn't like we weren't linked. Journalist said he was top of the want list. we just chose to ignore because he wasn't top of our own personal wants.

Out of the blue was Martial and Bailey.
 
ChaddyP said:
We were linked with Lukaku from March. It wasn't out of the blue. Yes the shift in momentum was sudden but it wasn't like we weren't linked. Journalist said he was top of the want list. we just chose to ignore because he wasn't top of our own personal wants.

Out of the blue was Martial and Bailey.
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People ignored it because everyone thought it was a done deal to Chelsea, as did the club hence working on the deal for Morata
 
charlenefan said:
People ignored it because everyone thought it was a done deal to Chelsea, as did the club hence working on the deal for Morata
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It still wasn't out of the blue. We were linked heavily for him from March. It was always a battle between us and Chelsea. Maybe the momentum shift came out of the blue then that would be like Di Maria signing. But certainly we were well linked and the signing never came from out of the sky like Martial.
 
Gotta be Falcao. Not least because at the time we needed centre halves and bought in a striker
 
Why are people putting Lukaku in here?

op is spot on, Cantona, Cole, and Anderson, with Anderson being a surprise addition on the same day as the well-followed Nani.
 
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