For better or worse... how did those last-minute transfers work out?

By David Gerges in Mirror Football Blog

Published 16:05 31/08/09

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As the transfer deadline looms ever closer, and managers start frantically trying to spend cash like a WAG on the first day of the January sales, we take a little look back in history to see just how some of those last-ditch deals worked out.

Here's MirrorFootball's Top 10 list of late deals that had a telling impact on their new clubs' cause - for better or for worse...

BETTER...

Trevor Francis
On February 9, 1979 - just a few weeks before the end of the March transfer deadline - the football world was stunned to learn that Francis had just become the first £1m footballer. In fact, the actual fee to take Francis to Nottingham Forest from Birmingham was £999,999 because manager Brian Clough didn't want the giant fee going to his head. It was money well spent though as three months later Tricky Trev nodded the winner in the European Cup final against Malmo.

Paul Kitson/John Hartson
You may heard that Harry Redknapp enjoys a punt in the transfer market, and this double deal was one of his better bits of business. For a combined outlay of £5.5million in February 1997 - £3.2m to Arsenal for Hartson and £2.3m to Newcastle for Kitson - Redknpp snapped up the two strikers who combined to keep West Ham in the Premier League. Bottom when the pair arrived in the East End, they scored 13 goals between them in the remaining two-and-a-half months of the season to rescue the Hammers from the drop.

Christophe Dugarry
The mercurial Frenchman joined Birmingham in January 2003 with the club on the verge of relegation from the top-flight. Many had questioned Steve Bruce's decision to sign the former World Cup winning striker - who had failed to score in 12 appearances for Bordeaux prior to his move to St. Andrews. However, the striker transformed Brums' fortunes with five goals in as many consecutive appearances to maintain the Blues' Premier League status.

Lassana Diarra
Wheeler-dealer Harry signed Diarra for £6million in January 2008 after the midfielder failed to impress during spells at Chelsea and Arsenal. It proved to be third time lucky at Fratton Park, where the French international shone during his short stay on the south-coast. Diarra was a key figure in the Portsmouth side that beat Cardiff in the the FA Cup final to reach Europe for the first time in the club's history. And exactly a year on from his capture, Diarra's departure was confirmed when the club accepted a £20m offer from Real Madrid.

Carlos Tevez
Shocked the footballing world, never mind the East End, when he turned up at Upton Park with club team-mate Javier Mascherano in the biggest coup on deadline day in August 2006. A troubled beginning, not helped by manager Alan Pardew's admission that he had no idea where to play the Argentine ace (clearly Pards had been busy during the summer when the World Cup was going on!) was all forgotten as he scored seven goals in West Ham's last 10 games - including that famous winner at Old Trafford - as the team now managed by Alan Curbishley pulled off one of the Premier League's great escapes. Sheffield United weren't best pleased, but he'll always be a hero down at the Boleyn.

WORSE...

Rodney Marsh
Marsh was one of the most naturally gifted players to grace the game and when Manchester City signed him for a club record £200,000 on January 20, 1972 it seemed that his arrival was certain to help stretch City's four-point lead at the top of the First Division. Far from being the final piece in the jigsaw, however, Marshie upset the balance of the side and by the season's end they had slumped to fourth.  His silky skills made him a City favourite, but only the only silverware he received while at the club was a 1974 League Cup runners-up medal.

Michael Owen
Owen joined Newcastle for £17m in August 2005 - beating the club's previous transfers record set by Alan Shearer when the striker signed from Blackburn in 1996. But while Shearer went on to become Newcastle's record goalscorer, Owen had no such joy. Injuries took their toll, most notably at  the 2006 World Cup when he damaged cruciate ligaments that sidelined him for almost a year. When he eventually returned, he failed to replicate the form that had made him one of the most feared marksmen in Europe. Owen left Newcastle after their relegation from the Premier League in May 2009, after netting just 26 goals in four injury-fuelled years - a cost of over £653,000 per goal.

Jimmy Bullard
"I still think Jimmy is a tremendous value-for-money buy at £5million," said Hull chairman Paul Duffen, after Bullard managed just 37 minutes for the Tigers before breaking down with a meniscus tear that had showed up during his medical prior to his move from Fulham. Bullard had undergone major surgery on the same knee in September 2006 and been sidelined for 16 months with the problem, so when Duffen arrived at Craven Cottage waving a cheque at Mohamed Al Fayed, the Harrods man nearly snapped his arm off. Bullard, who is on £45,000 a week, has yet to reappear for Hull since his injury.

Faustino Asprilla
Newcaste were 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League when they signed Tino from Parma for £6.7m on January 26, 1996. He may have had a penchant for guns, porn stars and crashing cars but that didn't trifle Kevin Keegan, who welcomed the unpredictable Columbian, who promised to clean up his act, with open arms. Keegan then looked on in horror as his side capitulated to Manchester United in the title run-in, with Tino failing to impress. Asprilla doesn't appear to have changed his ways either. Last year he was arrested in his homeland for spraying security forces with machine-gun fire.

Javier Mascherano
No sooner had Mascherano joined West Ham alongside Tevez, than he was on the move again, this time joining Liverpool just six months after signing for the Irons. He might be a firm fixture in the Anfield line-up now, but it was a different story during his days as an EastEnder as he failed to oust Nigel Reo-Coker and Hayden Mullins from the Hammers XI.

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