On this day in transfer gossip history… April 25th 2003

If only they'd signed Rommedahl - Photo minhquangle87

If the rumours offered up on the BBC’s gossip page 6 years ago today were true, today’s football landscape would be a hell of a lot different. For starters, Manchester United might not be European Champions, and Cristiano Ronaldo may well have bypassed Manchester and gone straight to Real Madrid, saving us all from an interminable rumour cycle.

Sir Alex Ferguson has lined up PSV Eindhoven’s Danish winger Dennis Rommendahl in a £5m deal as Real Madrid close in on capturing David Beckham. (Daily Mirror)

Good start. Alternatively, Rommendahl will spend one more year with PSV before swapping the Eindhoven for the less-glamourous-than-Manchester United red of Charlton Athletic where he shone less broughtly than eventual Beckham replacement Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ferguson wants Harry Kewell and Patrick Kluivert at Old Trafford next season. Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnson is a back-up plan. (The Sun)

Not just a great transfer plan - a sound back up plan too.

Kewell signs for Liverpool, gets injured a lot before being part of the tactical masterplan that saw Liverpool surrender a 3 goal advantage to AC Milan in the Champions League final, before beng booed off by his own fans for another injury and watching from the sidelines as Liverpool scored some consolation goals and knocked in a few penalties.

Kluivert stayed one more year at Barcelona before spending a season at Newcastle proving that he was past his best (and his thinnest) and leaving at the end of the season, with both parties deciding not to take up the option for a second year on his contract.

Having not signed Kewell or Kluivert, Ferguson’s back up plan failed to materialise, with Gudjohnson remaining at Chelsea to help Mourinho win back-to-back titles before heading to Barcelona to make room for soon-to-be-Mourinho favourites Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and Solomon Kalou.

Ferguson signs Cristiano Ronaldo and no doubt to this day stays awake at night wondering where it all went wrong.

United will hold talks next week with Sporting Lisbon with a view to taking highly-rated Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma to Old Trafford in a £10m deal. (The Independent)

Talks with Sporting Lisbon? Yes!

With a view to taking highly-rated Portuguese winger? Yes!!

Riacrdo Quaresma for £10m? No!!! So close!!!

Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved, Leeds keeper Paul Robinson and Blackburn winger Damien Duff are Man Utd’s top transfer targets. (The Guardian)

Pavel Nedved stays at Juventus, even through scandal and relegation; Leeds keeper Paul Robinson heads to Spurs the following year where he becomes England’s number 1 before embarking on a gaffe-filled downward career trajectory; and Damien Duff joins the so called ‘Russian Revolution’ at Chelsea and wins medals and trophies before falling out of favour and performing career suicide by signing for Newcastle. That’s 8 United rumours with 0 successes today alone.

But Arsenal will fight United for the signature of keeper Robinson. (Daily Express)

The fight gets cancelled, and Arsenal and United settle outside the ring for Jens Lehmann and Tim Howard respectively.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is also tracking £3m rated Auxerre centre-back Philippe Mexes. (Daily Mirror)

Arsene Wenger tracks his move to Roma one year later without getting involved. Given that the previous year he signed Pascal Cygan and that summer he brought in Philippe Senderos, perhaps he should have got involed.

Chelsea will make a £7m move for West Ham midfielder Joe Cole in the summer. (Daily Express)

Chelsea bag Joe Cole that summer for £6.6m - take a bow Daily Express.

Tottenham boss Glenn Hoddle wants Birmingham’s Christophe Dugarry as a replacement for Teddy Sheringham. (Daily Mirror)

Want doesn;t get. Crowd favourite Dugarry remains at Birmingham for half a season before leaving citing family issues whilst Hoddle fills his boots with strikers, replacing Teddy with Helder Postiga, Freddie Kanoute and Bobby Zamora.

They didn’t exactly fire, unlike the Tottenham board who turfed Hoddle out 6 games into the new season.

Tomas Sorensen, Kevin Phillips, Tore Andre Flo, Claudio Reyna and Gavin McCann are all up for sale as Sunderland look to clear their debts. (Daily Mirror)

The Daily Mirror erred on the side of caution by neglecting to predict their destinations, but at least they weren’t wrong: Sorensen and McCann remained teammates by joining Villa; Phillips joins Southampton; and Flo leaves on a free transfer to join Sienna in Italy. Who knew that clubs who get relegated tend to offload their best players? Wow. Take that debt!