Man United £30million transfer deal hinged on me – I was given five-minute ultimatum to decide

Football transfers can often be sudden and unexpected, but it's rare for a player to be given as little as five minutes to decide their future.

This was the case for Fraizer Campbell, whose snap decision to join Tottenham on deadline day in 2008 enabled Manchester United to finalise the £30million capture of Dimitar Berbatov. Campbell was close to agreeing a loan move to Wigan Athletic when he received an unexpected call from Sir Alex Ferguson, who explained the situation in typically ruthless manner.

"It was the international break, so I was with the England Under-20s or Under-21s. I know I'm going on loan, and I'm sat with Steve Bruce, he was at Wigan at the time," Campbell, now 37, revealed on MUTV's UTD podcast.

"So I'm waiting for the faxes to come through so I could sign... and I get a call from a withheld number, so I was like, 'hello?' And [Sir Alex says:] 'oh, Fraizer, it's Sir Alex here. I'm going to ring you back in five minutes and you're going to need to give me your answer. I've got a deal for Berbatov going through, it's £30m – it's only going to go through if you agree to go there on loan. So, I'm going to ring you back in three or four minutes with your decision. Speak to you in a minute.' And that was it."

Not wanting to upset Ferguson, Campbell agreed to the move. "I was hardly going to say no," he quipped. "So, I told Steve and he was like, 'ah no, you're killing me. I've come to bring you to Wigan'. But I couldn't ring [Ferguson] back and say, 'no I don't fancy it, to be honest'. I don't think that would have gone down well, so I was just like, 'well, looks like I'm going Spurs' – and that was it."

Campbell and Berbatov ended up trading places, a move that ultimately benefited the Bulgarian more.