Kevin De Bruyne, Xabi Alonso and the Premier League players who were sold too soon - ranked

One can understand why Manchester City wanted rid of Carlos Tevez. The Argentine had caused uproar by allegedly refusing to come on as a substitute in a Champions League game at Bayern Munich - Tevez insisted he had merely misunderstood manager Roberto Mancini's instructions - while he was still carrying out community service for driving without a licence when eventually sold to Juventus in 2013.

However, this ranks as a massive mistake, because even though City were looking to save some money in terms of wages and bonuses, the £12m ($15m) fee was ludicrously low for a forward of such considerable talent who still had plenty left in the tank.

Indeed, Tevez was a revelation in Turin, the prolific striker that Antonio Conte had long been craving helped Juventus re-establish themselves as a major European force by reaching the Champions League final in 2015.

He left that summer, to return to his beloved Boca Juniors, but did so as one of the finest No.10s in the Bianconeri's history. As veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini enthused, "Carlos is a world-class champion!"

It's no secret that Sir Alex Ferguson never approved of David Beckham's high-profile relationship with Victoria 'Posh Spice' Adams. The former Manchester United manager has even stated that the ex-England international "was never a problem until he got married".

Ferguson argued that Beckham became more of a celebrity than a footballer, and that his performances on the pitch suffered as a result. Beckham strongly disagreed, and the growing tension between the pair culminated in a bitter fallout after Ferguson accidentally struck the player in the face with a football boot during a furious post-match ran on February 15, 2003.

Just four months later, United agreed to sell Beckham to Real Madrid for €37 million (£31m/$40m). Los Blancos marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez couldn't believe the fee, describing it as "peanuts" for one of the most talented and famous footballers on the planet.

Beckham says his leaving Old Trafford may have been for the best, given his subsequent success playing overseas, but he admitted again in a recent Netflix documentary that his dream all along had been to spend his entire career at United.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez made no secret of his desire to sign Gareth Barry during the summer of 2008. "If we can do it before the end of the transfer window, we will continue to try," the Spaniard said. "We will always continue to improve our squad." Quite why Benitez felt that selling Xabi Alonso to bring in Barry would actually improve his squad remains a mystery, given the Spaniard was in a different league to the Englishman.

What we do know is that Alonso was bitterly upset by being used as a pawn in such a bizarre move. "I prefer not to think too much about how I was treated," the midfielder told The Daily Express after refusing to leave Anfield. "It was a new situation for me, something I had never experienced before... It is not always easy to detach yourself from things like that, but I accept it is part of football and the main thing is it was all resolved and I am now playing regularly. I was really pleased that I was able to continue my Liverpool career."

However, a clearly still annoyed Alonso handed in a transfer request the following summer and left for Real Madrid, leaving Steven Gerrard "devastated" and Benitez looking like a fool for upsetting a key player in the club's 2005 Champions League triumph.

Tony Pulis has admitted that he's tired of being singled out as the coach who failed to realise Serge Gnabry's potential during the winger's six-month spell at West Brom during the 2015-16 season. "I always get this thrown at me," he told the Under the Cosh podcast, "and he's done fantastically well since, so you have to hold your hands up, but at the time he was nowhere near it.

"What people forget is that we had him on loan, Arsenal were his mother club, and Arsene Wenger was his manager and he sold him to Werder Bremen for £7 million ($9m). Wenger had him right from 14 all the way through, I only had him for a couple of months."

It's a fair point. It's clear that somebody messed up at Arsenal, but Wenger has insisted that he actually wanted to keep Gnabry, telling beIN SPORTS that he was "very sad" when the player decided to leave in pursuit of regular first-team football because he knew the versatile attacker would have "a great career".

It has certainly turned out that way, with Gnabry doing so well at Bremen that he earned a move to Bayern Munich after just one season, and subsequently scored 23 goals in all competitions during a 2019-20 campaign that ended with the Bavarians winning a treble.

There remains some debate over exactly why Manchester United surprisingly decided to sell Jaap Stam to Lazio in 2001. Some believe then-manager Sir Alex Ferguson was enraged by allegations and observations made by the centre-back in his autobiography 'Head to Head', which was serialised by the Daily Mirror and included the claim that he had been tapped up by the Scot before joining the club from PSV. Stam had also made some unflattering comments in the book about the Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, as well as David Beckham.

Ferguson insisted, though, that it was a purely footballing decision - albeit one that he got badly wrong. "At the time Jaap had just come back from an Achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit," the Scot explained in 2007. "We got the offer from Lazio, £16m for a centre back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake."

It was clear to Ian Wright just three months after Arsenal had sold Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa for £20m ($25m) that his former club had grossly undervalued the Argentine. "He's already worth a lot more than that now," the Gunners icon said on his podcast. "He's one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League."

Wright wasn't wrong. As well as racking up more clean sheets in his first 100 games for Villa than any of his predecessors, Martinez also won The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper award on the back of his Golden Glove-winning heroics at the 2022 World Cup, which included four penalty saves in shootouts and an already-legendary stop in the dying seconds of injury-time from Randal Kolo Muani in the final.

The 31-year-old's incredible success since leaving the Emirates is a little tough to take for Arsenal fans, given manager Mikel Arteta ended up getting rid of Bernd Leno, who was keeping Martinez out of the team, and then benching the German's £30m replacement, Aaron Ramsdale, in favour of David Raya, the Spanish shot-stopper who continues to divide opinion.

Gerard Pique has rather diplomatically argued that when he left Old Trafford in 2008 "maybe it was the best decision for (Alex) Ferguson, for me, for Manchester United and for Barcelona." In truth, though, it was a shocking error by Ferguson and United. The Red Devils had picked Pique up for nothing from Barca when he was still only 17, but inexplicably sold him back to the Blaugrana for just £5m ($6.2m).

Worse still, the common consensus is that United gave up on the Catalan centre-back because of one poor performance, with former forward Wayne Rooney arguing that an away loss at Bolton "more or less finished Gerard Pique's career at United."

"He was young and got bullied there," Rooney wrote in The Sunday Times, "and I think that's when Fergie decided that, physically, he wasn't right for the Premier League."

Pique has admitted that he blames himself for United's 1-0 loss at the Reebok Stadium, but remains immensely grateful to both Ferguson and United for letting him re-join Barca, with whom he subsequently won every major honour in the game. Pique feared the fee would be an issue, given there was no buy-out clause in his contract, so was relieved that United were bizarrely willing to give him away for next-to-nothing.

Chelsea signed Kevin De Bruyne from Genk for £7 million ($8.8m) on the final day of the 2012 winter window and then sent him out on a season-long loan to Werder Bremen that summer. The Belgian's spell in Germany went well and De Bruyne was interested in joining Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, but Jose Mourinho blocked his exit, telling the attacking midfielder that he was a key part of his plans for the 2013-14 season.

However, after a promising start to the campaign, De Bruyne rarely featured in the first team. Mourinho still insists that he didn't force De Bruyne out, arguing that the player simply wasn't willing to fight for his place.

De Bruyne has admitted that he "made some mistakes" during his time at Stamford Bridge, that he didn't fully understand at 21 the level of professionalism and patience required of an aspiring Premier League player, but also explained that he only spoke with Mourinho twice and felt he had no option to leave after being unfairly ostracised in his view.

"After the fourth game [of the season], that was it," De Bruyne wrote in The Players' Tribune. "I was on the bench, and I never really got a chance again. I didn't get an explanation. I was just out of favour for some reason."

Consequently, Chelsea sold De Bruyne to Wolfsburg in January 2012 for £18m ($22.6m) and he would eventually return to the Premier League in August 2015, joining Manchester City, with whom he would prove himself one of the most talented players the English game has ever seen.

Jose Mourinho remains very bitter over the fact that many people believe he's the reason why Chelsea sold Mohamed Salah. "It is the opposite," the Portuguese claimed in an interview with ESPN Brasil. "I was the one that bought Salah from Basel... But he came as a young kid, physically he was not ready, mentally he was not ready, socially and culturally he was lost, and everything was tough for him."

However, former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has argued that Mourinho wasn't the right manager for Salah, in the sense that the two-time Champions League winner didn't "take any prisoners", even when dealing with young players.

"If you weren’t doing your job, it didn’t matter who you were, he would have a go at you," the Nigerian said on his podcast. "He had a go at Mohamed Salah at half-time once and he was in tears crying. We thought ‘OK, he’s going to let him back on the pitch’ but then he destroyed the kid and took him off."

Salah has admitted himself that it was the moment he realised his career would be better served by leaving Chelsea - and so it proved. Productive loan spells at first Fiorentina and then Roma led to a permanent move to the latter, who paid just €20m (£17m/$21.4m) in total for the Egyptian winger. After shining in Serie A, Salah joined Liverpool in 2017, and is now widely regarded as one of the best players in Premier League history.

It was the phone call which changed the entire course of English football history. On November 25, 1992, Leeds managing director Bill Fotherby rang Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards to enquire about signing Denis Irwin. The Irish full-back was not available at any price, but according to manager Alex Ferguson, he then prompted Edwards to ask about Leeds striker Eric Cantona.

It is worth noting that Edwards insists that signing the Frenchman was his idea, but whatever the truth, United could not believe their luck when Fotherby went away to consider the situation, only to return an hour later to say that Cantona was for available for £1.5m ($1.9m), as Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson had grown weary of the French forward's arrogance and ill-discipline.

The Red Devils eventually haggled Leeds down to £1.2m ($1.5m) and quickly wrapped up the most important deal in Premier League history, with Cantona going on to become a legend at Old Trafford, inspiring United to their first top-flight title in 25 years just six months after his arrival.