ON THIS DAY

Transfer deadline day saw some amazing transfers being finalised. Top of the list was Fernando Torres moving from Liverpool to Chelsea for a reported £50m fee while Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez both signed up for moves to Anfield. The £22.8m fee Liverpool paid to Ajax for Suarez’s signature was an Anfield record that lasted for a few hours until the Reds handed over £35m to Newcastle for Andy Carroll. At the time the Torres and Carroll transfer fees were the top two amounts for transfers between British clubs. Of the trio Luis Suarez was the only one who was considered a success at his new club. In the short term Torres took 732 minutes of football for Chelsea before he scored his first goal for the club while Carroll didn’t even make his debut for Liverpool until March because of injury – and in the longer term the fortunes of both those two didn’t improve much.

Another FA Cup shock. When League champions Manchester United hosted Isthmian League Walthamstow Avenue there was only one expected winner - but the unexpected happened. In front of a 34,748 Old Trafford crowd the non-leaguers held their own and came away with a 1-1 draw. The replay the following Thursday attracted a crowd of 49,119 - it was played at Highbury - but the dream ended for the non-leaguers with United winning 5-2.