A-Z of Coventry City transfers: J for Jarni

One of the strangest transfer episodes involving the Sky Blues was that of Robert Jarni, a star of the 1998 World Cup and hailed as a major coup for the club when he was signed from Real Betis in the wake of his exploits in France for the Croatian side that finished in third place.

Within a matter of days, the marauding left-back was on the move again, this time joining Real Madrid having never pulled on a City shirt.

The Sky Blues pocketed a £750,000 profit on their original £2.6m deal and the speculation started as to what had gone on behind the scenes.

Favourite among the theories was that Madrid had enlisted the help of another club to bypass Betis’s unwillingness to sell to them directly.

Also doing the rounds was the story that Mrs Jarni was not over-enamoured at the prospect of making Coventry her new home!