Transfers aren't always as straightforward as most of this summer window's moves have been. With less than a week left until the start of the new Premier League season, records have been broken and allegiances shifted. Morgan Rogers became the most expensive British player in history with his £117million switch to Chelsea, following Elliot Anderson's £116m move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City. The window has seen other stars like Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon change hands for sizable fees.
But with all those transfers, it's highly likely the club's managers either sanctioned the purchases or will at least be overjoyed to welcome new faces. This isn't always the case. Mirror Football looks back at instances where a transfer wasn't the manager's decision, but the club still went ahead with the deal.
Zirkzee and Spence: Signings That Raised Eyebrows
When Manchester United purchased Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna in 2024 for £36.5million, he became the first signing of the INEOS era at Old Trafford. Then-manager Erik ten Hag was given a new striker, but he'd requested a different type of forward. After Ten Hag's dismissal, reports suggested he was frustrated at the Zirkzee signing, as it was driven by INEOS, to whom he had requested a proven Premier League striker. Zirkzee started just five games last term.
Tottenham defender Djed Spence was one of World Cup 2026's brightest lights, but his path to becoming an England hero was not straightforward. In 2022, Spurs snapped him up for £20m from Middlesbrough. Antonio Conte admitted: "Spence is an investment of the club. The club wanted to do it. I said OK, this player is young but he showed he can become a good, important player for us. The club decided to buy him." Under Conte, Spence played sparingly and went on loan to Rennes, Leeds, and Genoa before a breakout 2024/25 campaign.
Pogba and Ntcham: High-Profile Disagreements
Paul Pogba's 2016 return to Manchester United from Juventus thrilled fans, but Jose Mourinho wasn't enthused, according to his close friend and former adviser Eladio Parames. "Sometimes there are reasons beyond sports that lead the clubs, and not always the coaches, to gamble on hiring players," Parames told Record in 2018. "Pogba, for example, is worth a lot in the advertising market, so much so that in just six months Manchester United had already recovered what they had invested in him [£89million]. However, without terriers like Blaise Matuidi and N'Golo Kante at his side, he is worth virtually nothing on the field."
Marseille's decision to bring in Celtic playmaker Olivier Ntcham cost Andre Villas-Boas his job. He resigned in February 2021 and quit management for good. "I have resigned because I don't agree with the sporting policy of the club," Villas-Boas told reporters. "I said no to the signing of Olivier Ntcham. He wasn't on our list. I had nothing to do with this decision. Ntcham is a player I said no to. I was not aware [he had signed], I learned it in the press this morning when I woke up."
Joelinton, Bogarde, and Shevchenko: Club Decisions
Newcastle's £40m signing of Joelinton from Hoffenheim in 2019 wasn't fully backed by Rafa Benitez. Former owner Mike Ashley told the Daily Mail in 2019: "He thought the £40m for Joelinton wasn't worth it. It's too much and the club shouldn't spend it. Very occasionally, I get to be me in this world. So here's the deal. I'll pay £20m of it personally. Nothing to do with the club. Above and beyond the budget. Rafa valued him at £20m. So that's what would come out of the club budget. The rest, £23m – I'll pay. And he still didn't sign it off."
Winston Bogarde's 2000 move to Chelsea from Barcelona was reportedly kept from manager Gianluca Vialli, with director Colin Hutchinson overseeing the deal. Vialli was dismissed shortly after, and Bogarde became a notorious flop. "You may have seen reports in the press that Vialli never wanted to sign me in the first place and it was my arrival that quickened his departure," said Bogarde. "As far as I am concerned, I was not aware of any of this."
Andriy Shevchenko, who scored 173 goals in 296 appearances for AC Milan, was brought to Chelsea by Roman Abramovich but managed just 23 goals in two seasons. Mourinho said upon leaving in 2007: "He was like a prince in Milan and at Chelsea our philosophy was different, we had no princes. Everybody needs to work like everybody else and everybody needs to prove he deserves to play. I think maybe he lost some self-confidence. Step by step a player goes in the wrong direction. He was not my first option."
Balotelli, Xisco, and Werner: Managerial Frustrations
Brendan Rodgers distanced himself from Liverpool's 2014 signing of Mario Balotelli. "What we wanted and what we needed was a player who could really press at the top end of the field. It wasn't just a goalscorer we were after," he said in 2016. "I felt Mario was someone who wouldn't work for us. But come the end of the summer, we were struggling to get someone who could do the role we wanted."
Kevin Keegan's second stint as Newcastle boss hit a breaking point in the 2008 summer window when he learned that Xisco and Ignacio Gonzalez were being imposed upon him. Keegan wrote in his 2018 autobiography: "It wasn't Mike's beer-guzzling that upset me that day. It was the fact that Tony Jimenez, the executive who had been put in charge of Newcastle's transfer business, had informed me we were spending £5.7m on a Spanish player called Xisco whom nobody from the club had ever seen play. On the same day the Xisco bombshell was dropped, I had also found out a Uruguayan by the name of Ignacio Gonzalez was joining us as a 'favour' for two South American agents."
Frank Lampard reportedly had little say over Chelsea transfers, with power resting primarily with former director Marina Granovskaia. One signing Lampard reportedly never requested was RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner, who arrived in 2020. Harry Redknapp said of his nephew's signings that summer: "The two German players [Kai Havertz and Werner] have been massive disappointments, massive. I'm not even sure Timo Werner is cut out for Premier League football, the physical side is too much for him. I doubt very much whether Frank had a big say over who came in."
