De Bruyne to Liverpool!? 6 Premier League transfers that messed with our head

Manchester City icon Kevin De Bruyne has transfer gossip columnists into a frenzy after refusing to rule out a move to another Premier League club. Could we soon see him move to champions-elect Liverpool?

It was kind of taken as read that De Bruyne would take up a lucrative option elsewhere after his Man City contract expires at the end of the season, with a move to MLS or the Saudi Pro League still among the most likely options.

“If teams come and they can convince me that something sporting is nice, a nice project, I’m able,” De Bruyne told ViaPlay after being asked about the prospect of staying in England.

“I know, obviously, I’m not the youngest any more but I still feel I’m able to perform at a very high level.”

There have been no reports to suggest that Liverpool are going to table an offer for the veteran Belgian, but a move to Anfield would mean that he wouldn’t have to move and his family can remain settled where they are. It might actually make a degree of sense.

We struggle to envisage De Bruyne wearing the red of Liverpool after years of battling away against them, but stranger things have happened. Here are six big Premier League transfers that messed with our head.

Frank Lampard to Manchester City

The midfielder played almost two hundred times for boyhood club West Ham United before his career-defining move to Chelsea in 2001. So the idea of Lampard at a different club shouldn’t have felt as uncanny as it did.

But after 13 years of winning everything at the heart of Chelsea’s midfield, it was wild to see him sign for reigning Premier League champions Manchester City after his Blues contract expired in 2014.

City’s title retention bid fell flat as they ended up an underwhelming eight points behind Chelsea, but Lampard had his moments at The Etihad – not least scoring a late equaliser against his old flame, prompting the most textbook non-celebration celebration you’ll ever see.

Raheem Sterling to Chelsea

The inverse of Lampard, seeing Sterling in a darker shade of blue just felt weird.

Enough time has passed now, but at the time seeing Sterling turn out for another top Premier League club after being so synonymous with the early years of Pep Guardiola’s dynasty at Manchester City took some getting used to.

Given his struggles at Stamford Bridge, and subsequently out on loan at Arsenal, it’s now strange to think it wasn’t so long ago that he was considered one of the best, most consistent forwards in the country. A stellar record of 131 goals and 78 assists in 339 appearances for City is a testament to that.

Rio Ferdinand to Queens Park Rangers

Again, like Lampard, Ferdinand played enough top-flight football before his prime years as a serial trophy collector at Manchester United. He played over 150 times for West Ham and shone in Leeds United’s run to the 2000-01 Champions League semi-finals.

After six Premier League titles and three Champions League final appearances during his 12-year stint at Old Trafford, Ferdinand’s career post-script at Harry Redknapp’s shambolic, relegation-doomed QPR in 2014-15 was an odd one.

“I wish I finished my career at Manchester United, rather than moving to QPR,” Ferdinand reminisced on The Overlap.

“Because it was the first time I had been in a changing room where people were talking about money and wages. You’d hear murmurings of players talking about it and I found it mad.

“We had players not wanting to train because they were on a certain amount of money, the intensity wasn’t that high, and for whatever Harry Redknapp was trying to do, the players weren’t buying into it, and that team ended up getting relegated.”

Fernando Torres to Chelsea

Not counting Sol Campbell signing for Arsenal on a Bosman, Torres’ January 2011 move from Liverpool to Chelsea surely remains the most earth-shattering transfer between two of the Premier League’s ‘big six’ clubs.

It’s hard to think of what an equivalent today could be – Bruno Fernandes to Arsenal, at a push? – but in today’s money you imagine that the £50million, colossal at the time, would be at least double.

Liverpool infamously threw money down the drain by reinvesting the bulk of that record fee to sign Andy Carroll from Newcastle, but they lucked out by arguably upgrading on Torres -unbeknownst on the downslope – by also bringing in Luis Suarez from Ajax.

Robbie Fowler to Leeds United

Another Kop hero it was once impossible to imagine wearing another club’s colours, Fowler to Leeds can now be read as one of the major signposts of Peter Ridsdale’s hubris at Elland Road – yet another high-profile, big-money forward.

“In a silly sort of way I’m glad I left Liverpool. I genuinely didn’t want to leave Liverpool,” the former striker reminisced, talking to talkSPORT.

“This is no disrespect to Leeds or Man City and I know Leeds and City fans won’t hold this against me…

“I realised, these are not as good – or not as big I should say – as Liverpool.”

It’s almost a quarter of a century since Fowler first left Anfield. Enough time has passed since the latter half of his career with diminishing returns at Leeds, City, briefly back at Liverpool, Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers whereby his career trajectory now feels customary.

But at the time it felt unthinkable. Nicknamed ‘God’ in the red half of Merseyside, it always seemed as though Fowler was destined to be a one-club icon. Until he wasn’t.

John Terry to Aston Villa

Technically speaking, this wasn’t a Premier League transfer.

Chelsea’s ‘captain, leader, legend’ kept going for one more year after his Stamford Bridge send-off, arriving at Villa Park for the middle season of their three-year stay in the Championship in the late 2010s.

The veteran defender was immediately appointed captain as Steve Bruce’s squad went with an eclectic Expandables vibe, also roping in Ahmed Elmohamady, Glenn Whelan, Robert Snodgrass, Lewis Grabban and Christopher Samba.

Villa finished fifth that year but missed out on promotion after losing to Fulham in the play-off final.

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