Five last-gasp deadline day transfer deals

Tottenham's decision to leave it as late as they possibly could to complete the signing of Rafael van der Vaart raised a few eyebrows, but they aren't the first club to hurry through a deal in the dying minutes of the window...

Ashley Cole and William Gallas
The summer window of 2006 set the benchmark for last-minute manoeuvres as perhaps the most memorable swap deal in Premier League history, which sent Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea for £5 million plus William Gallas, wasn't announced by the London clubs until 1.25am!

Dimitar Berbatov
Most would agree that the best ever deadline day came two years ago when Robinho and Dimitar Berbatov moved to Manchester. Berbatov's switch was widely expected but only just went through as Daniel Levy sought the best package for Spurs, whose fans weren't too impressed to land Fraizer Campbell.

Andrey Arshavin
Tottenham fans were among those quick to shout conspiracy when Arsenal finally confirmed the arrival of Arshavin a day after the window had shut last February, with the Gunners blaming the fact that snow once again brought the country to a standstill for the delay to proceedings.

Richard Dunne
The former Manchester City captain's move to Aston Villa last summer was another one of those transfers that everyone anticipated yet bizarrely was left until the dying seconds to be wrapped up. The Premier League forced Villa to sweat it out for a day before eventually ratifying it.

Benjani
The Blackburn striker isn't as big a name as others on this list but deserves his place after doing the double. He supposedly fell asleep at the airport when quitting Portsmouth for Manchester City in 2008, then nearly saw a loan switch to Sunderland collapse in February due to fax and e-mail problems.

Can you think of any others worthy of a place? Tell us below...

Published: 2 Sep 2010