The top 10 controversial transfers that shook the world of football

As Adam Lallana prepares to return to Southampton this week we look at 10 of the most controversial transfers in football.

Phil Chisnall: Phil Chisnall only played eight times for Liverpool after joining them in 1964 for £25,000, and he hardly counts as one of the club’s all-times greats. But the legacy was huge.

Chisnall was the last of only nine players to move directly between Manchester United and Liverpool, as the industrial and commercial rivalry between these two great northern cities manifested itself into football.

Some 43 years later, in 2007, it looked like Gabriel Heinze might move from United to Liverpool, as Rafa Benitez was keen to take him to Anfield.

The policy from Old Trafford was anywhere but there, and the Argentine was quickly shipped off to Real Madrid instead.

Francis Lee: Francis Lee will forever be remembered as a Manchester City great. As one of ‘Lee, Bell and Summerbee’, he had been at the heart of the club’s first golden era at the top of English football in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But perhaps his most famous moment came when playing against City. Lee did not want to leave in 1974, but his time was up and he moved to Derby County.

He returned to Maine Road in December and scored the winner as his new club beat his old one 2-1.

But rather than the muted celebrations of today by players against former clubs, Lee couldn’t contain his excitement as BBC commentator Barry Davies famously exclaimed, ‘Look at his face! Just look at his face!’

John Robertson: This was a move that did something worse than cause controversy, it broke a friendship.

Robertson had been an integral part of Nottingham Forest’s European Cup success, setting up Trevor Francis to score in the 1979 final against Malmo and scoring the winner himself 12 months later against Hamburg.

Those moments were the high point of Brian Clough’s partnership with Peter Taylor. When Taylor took Robertson from Forest to Derby County in 1983, Clough described his former right-hand-man as a ‘snake in the grass’.

Such a great friendship was over and the pair never spoke again before Taylor’s sad death in 1990.

Maurice ‘Mo’ Johnston: Scottish football shook in 1989, when Mo Johnston made the most controversial decision in its history.

He rejected the chance to rejoin Celtic from French club Nantes and decided to cross the divide and sign for Rangers. Thus Johnston became the first Catholic to openly join the club since the First World War.

Some Rangers fans were enraged and burnt scarves while Celtic supporters could not believe such an act of treachery. But as ever in football, things on the pitch can change a mood in the stands.

That moment arrived on 4 November when Johnston scored the last-minute winner at Ibrox in the Old Firm match to win over his new supporters.

Eric Cantona: Eric Cantona was only at Leeds United for nine months, but in that time he helped them win the First Division in 1992 and earn iconic status.

That was shattered though, when he made the move across the Pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire to join Manchester United. He was the final piece in Sir Alex Ferguson’s jigsaw and Cantona became a United great.

He had the arrogance that was loved by the Reds and hated by everyone else. When he abruptly retired in 1997, he had collected four league titles and two FA Cups and left memories that would never be forgotten.

Alan Shearer: In this instant, it wasn’t a case of who Alan Shearer joined, but who he didn’t join.

Both in 1992 and 1996, Shearer had the opportunity to sign for Manchester United, but he turned them down twice, preferring to sign for Blackburn and then a move back to hometown club, Newcastle.

United fans never let him forget on every visit he made to Old Trafford during his career to face the Reds, and he did not win a single league game there with either Blackburn or Newcastle.

Shearer did score winning goals in two FA Cup semi-finals at Old Trafford for the Geordies, but he couldn’t inspire them to end their long trophy drought.

Luis Figo: Audacious is the only word to describe Florentino Perez’s pledge to Real Madrid supporters in a bid to win the club’s Presidential election in 2000.

He promised, if elected, to sign Luis Figo, Barcelona’s best player in a world record transfer. Perez won and he duly delivered his side of the bargain as Figo made the controversial move between the two giants of Spanish football. Barcelona fans never forgave him and abused him mercilessly whenever he returned.

The most notable moment came in a league game at the Camp Nou in November 2002, as objects rained down from the stands as the Portuguese star went to take a corner.

Among them was a pig’s head, which came to be the symbol that defined Figo’s defection.

Sol Campbell: Sol Campbell was nothing if not strong-minded. He allowed his Tottenham contract to run down in 2001 to be able to leave on a free transfer, with Italy considered the most likely destination.

The last place Spurs fans expected him to see was at Arsenal. But that is exactly what happened as he joined the Gunners for nothing. Campbell had a glorious spell in N5 and was a key member of the ‘Invincibles’ team in 2003/04.

But Spurs fans were in no mood to forgive and barracked him when he played against them for Arsenal, and subsequently for Portsmouth.

Robbie Savage: A transfer from Birmingham City to Blackburn should not be too controversial. But the antics of Robbie Savage in 2005 certainly left a sour taste.

Savage handed in a written transfer request at Birmingham stating that he wanted to move north to Blackburn to be nearer his ailing parents at the family home in Wrexham.

This was before it was pointed out to the Welshman that Birmingham was actually two miles closer to Wrexham than Blackburn!

Savage even admitted to not trying in a defeat against Newcastle, which turned out to his last game for Blues, as the lure of a lucrative new contract in Lancashire proved too hard for him to resist.

Carlos Tevez: In the summer of 2009, Manchester City were looking to make a bold statement. What bigger way than sign a striker from neighbours Manchester United?

Carlos Tevez had been popular in his two years at Old Trafford, but he became even more adored in the blue half of Manchester when he swapped United for City.

His arrival at The Etihad prompted the famous ‘Welcome to Manchester’ poster and obviously irked Sir Alex Ferguson as he made his infamous ‘noisy neighbours’ comment.

It prompted an increase in rivalry between the two clubs as they were suddenly competing against each for silverware. As for Tevez, he’s now at Juventus but can reflect on winning the Premier League with both Manchester clubs.