That is only heightened if the transfer was a shock to begin with.
Here's a look at eight players who spent time at clubs, only to leave you wondering:
'Did that really happen?!'
8. Bebe at Manchester United
Prior to his football career taking off, Portuguese forward Bebe had endured a tough childhood in which he was abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandmother before moving into a shelter as a teenager.
After his first professional club Estrela da Amadora were unable to pay his wages, the unknown Bebe signed with Primeira Liga side Vitoria de Guimaraes, only for Manchester United to pay £7m just five weeks later on the advice of ex-assistant coach Carlos Queiroz.
It was a huge shock, but rather than live up to the fairytale, Bebe's United career was almost non-existent. He played only seven times in his debut season and was later sent on a string of loans without a further appearance to his name. He can now be found at Eibar in Spain.
7. Samuel Eto'o at Everton
One of his generation's most celebrated strikers after over 180 goals and multiple Champions League wins during his time with Barcelona and Inter Milan, Samuel Eto'o somewhat surprisingly wound up at Everton in 2014 after a less than successful 12 months with Chelsea.
The Cameroon legend actually started in fine fashion, scoring against Chelsea on his Toffees debut. It even appeared he had found a new deeper role that better suited his advancing age.
Yet seemingly no sooner had it really begun, Eto'o's Merseyside existence was over. He left Everton midway through the season, returning to Italy to join Sampdoria, and that was that.
6. Javier Mascherano at West Ham
Everyone remembers Carlos Tevez at West Ham. The forward was instrumental in keeping the Hammers in the Premier League in the final stages of the 2006/07 season and was then the subject of much controversy as relegated Sheffield United cried foul play.
Despite his arrival on the same day from the same club, fewer remember anything about Javier Mascherano's time as a West Ham player. He only played five Premier League games and had secured a move to Liverpool within just a few months.
It was at Liverpool that Mascherano began to flourish, before moving on to Barcelona where he has played over 300 games and won four La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues.
5. Alexandre Pato at Chelsea
In hindsight, the fanfare surrounding Alexandre Pato's loan move to Chelsea midway through the 2015/16 season was ill-judged and misplaced.
Arriving from Corinthians after a successful loan at Sao Paulo, the Brazilian forward had previously lit up Italy in his younger days with AC Milan. But injuries had taken a toll and it was a player seriously under prepared for actual matches that took residence in west London.
Pato did score on his Chelsea debut, converting from the spot against Aston Villa, but it was nine weeks after he'd actually signed for the club and the whole thing was a bit of a wasted venture that was quickly swept under the rug.
4. Jonathan Woodgate at Real Madrid
Jonathan Woodgate had established himself as one of the best defenders in the Premier League after his emergence at Leeds and an 18-month spell with Newcastle, but his transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2004 came as something of a shock.
Woodgate followed fellow Englishman Michael Owen to Spain, but he was injured at the time of the move and had already been battling fitness problems for several years anyway.
It meant the centre-back failed to play a single game in the 2004/05 campaign. It was a month into the next season that he finally made his debut, during he scored an own goal and was sent off. After only 14 appearances, Woodgate was at Middlesbrough by August 2006.
3. Nicolas Anlelka at Juventus
Distinctly regrettable and certainly forgettable, Nicolas Anelka's short stint at West Brom came to an end after he chose terminate his contract following the fall out from a controversial quenelle goal celebration - a type of inverted Nazi salute.
But before arriving back in England with the Baggies in 2013, having previously starred in the Premier League for Arsenal, Manchester City, Bolton and Chelsea, the veteran striker had endured an even more forgettable spell with Juventus just a few months earlier.
Anelka was on loan from Shanghai Shenhua in China, where he'd been barely more successful, and played just three times for Juve without scoring.
2. Nicklas Bendtner at Juventus
Another striker who was on a questionable loan with Juventus at the same time as Anelka was former Arsenal cult hero Nicklas Bendtner.
He had spent the previous campaign on loan at Sunderland where he scored just eight Premier League goals in 28 appearances, yet the reigning Italian champions opted to take the misfiring Dane to Turin on a temporary deal.
Bendtner failed to find the net once for Juve in 11 total appearances across all competitions and returned to England where he scored just twice for Arsenal in 2013/14. He played for Nottingham Forest last season and is now plying his trade in Norway.
1. Julien Faubert at Real Madrid
French winger Julien Faubert was hardly a raging success at West Ham, playing just 27 Premier League games in his first 18 months with the club, so it came as a shock to the football world when Real Madrid took him on loan for a few months in 2009.
Counting the likes of Raul, Gonzalo Higuain, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder among his new team-mates couldn't raise his game and Faubert wasn't a success in Spain either.
He played only two games for Los Blancos and is remembered as much for appearing to almost fall asleep on the bench during one particular game against Villarreal than anything he actually did on the pitch.
