A look at 5 of the most thrilling transfer sagas of all time 

#4 Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, 2013

Bale finally joined Los Merengues after protracted negotiations

To say that Gareth Bale's rise at Tottenham Hotspur was meteoric would be an understatement. The winger had been plagued by injuries for a long time in his career but the 2010-11 proved to be his breakout season as he scored 11 goals in all competitions.

Following his 26 goals return in the 2012-13 season, Bale was comfortably the best player in the Premier League.

However, halfway through that magical season, Real Madrid had started putting out feelers that they were interested and considering that fact that they had already poached fellow Spurs player Luka Modric the previous year, it seemed that the transfer could be done.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is one of the toughest men in the business when it came to negotiations and a price tag of £100 million was demanded.

Nobody quite believed that the transfer would go through, especially since Spurs wanted the entire transfer fee in one go.

The saga went on for months but on transfer deadline day, it was eventually completed and the reported fee was a then world record of £85.3 million.

It was the transfer of the season and Bale proved his value by helping Real Madrid win the Champions League in his very first season.