Remembering the 4 wildest deadline day debacles

With Tuesday's transfer deadline looming, theScore looks at some of the wackiest and wildest deadline day deals in recent times.

Summer 2015 - De Gea and the infamous fax machine

Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea only had one thing standing between him and signing for Real Madrid: Manchester United's fax machine.

In a statement on the club website, released following the transfer fiasco, Madrid stated that it had "done everything necessary" to secure the service of De Gea.

The club outlined in detail how it moved as fast as possible, but as the deadline approached, Manchester United stalled the process through a broken fax machine.

Although the contracts had already been agreed upon by both clubs, Madrid claimed Manchester United did not send them the signed contract until two minutes past the deadline outlined by the FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS).

This rendered the transfer illegitimate and De Gea was destined to stick it out at Old Trafford, to the delight of United fans around the world.

It even prompted a new Red Devil holiday: Fax Machine Day.

January 2013 - Odemwingie's QPR saga

Three years ago, then-West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie made a bit of a fool of himself, in what would be seen as one of the most bizarre misunderstandings in Premier League history.

Odemwingie had fallen out of favour under then-manager Steve Clarke and the player tried to force a move away from The Hawthorns by driving down to Queens Park Rangers, his next supposed destination.

Or so he thought.

Odemwingie pulled up to Loftus Road expecting to sign a new contract, but it ended with the player being barred from the stadium.

To make matters worse, West Brom said it was "extremely disappointed to witness TV footage of Odemwingie arriving at Loftus Road" according to the Guardian's David Hytner, when no deal had been finalized.

The Nigerian was subsequently fined two weeks' wages by West Brom but the damage was already done.

The striker unsurprisingly lost his goal-scoring touch following the transfer ordeal and Odemwingie went on to score one goal in the remaining 15 games of the season.

Summer 2008 - Robinho and the ghost shirt

Back in 2008, Brazilian forward Robinho looked set to join Chelsea but instead he wound up north, on the blue side of Manchester.

A transfer fee of £29 million had been established between Chelsea and Real Madrid but the signing fell through due to a technical error, according to FourFourTwo.

Somehow, Chelsea allowed fans to log in on the club website and pre-order the club's new away shirt with Robinho's name on the back, even though the deal had not been finalised.

This did not sit well with the Spanish giant and Madrid promptly proceeded to cancel its transfer talk with Chelsea, selling the Brazilian to Manchester City on deadline day.

"But Real Madrid had fallen out with Chelsea - they didn’t like them selling shirts with my name on before the deal had been done," Robinho said.

"I'm pretty sure that this error was one of the main reasons why the transfer failed, as it was a matter of pride for Real Madrid."

It would come back to bite Chelsea sooner than expected as Robinho proceeded to score a free-kick against the west London club in his first game in a City shirt.

But Chelsea would have the last laugh in a 3-1 away win.

January 2008 - Benjani's bedtime

Manchester City had mustered just one win since the turn of the new year and then-manager Sven Goran Eriksson realised the need to reinforce his squad with a new striker.

With deadline day dwindling, City turned all of its attention to Benjani and a fee was agreed for the Zimbabwe international - before things started to go pear shaped.

In typical deadline day fashion, reporters started to mount up outside the Eithad Stadium and outside Fratton Park in order to shed some light on the situation.

But at the same moment, Benjani was sleeping at the airport which caused him to miss not one, but two separate flights to Manchester, according to BBC Sport's Gary Rose.

The player finally arrived well after 11:00 p.m. GMT and, in a race against the clock, the deal went through in the final hour. Four days later the Premier League confirmed that it had received all of the necessary paperwork in time.

And sleepy-head got off to the dream start for City, scoring on his debut in a 2-1 win against Manchester United.