Chelsea may have committed the biggest cock-up in football transfer history.
Such was chief executive Peter Kenyon's bullish mood this week, claiming that Robinho's £30m move will go ahead albeit "to the wire".
Real Madrid are now saying the winger still has two years on his contract and is going nowhere.
Now, either this is a bit of last-minute posturing by the Spanish club or Chelsea have made a major blunder.
Real's Ramon Calderon said yesterday: "The coach and the sports director want the player to stay and I am sure he will. Our squad is complete.
"It is impossible for us to have one better than the one we have."
And Real sporting director Predrag Mijatovic said: "Robinho has two years left on his contract.
"Therefore he is our player for the next two seasons, so you can draw your own conclusions from that."
That flies in the face of what Kenyon said on Wednesday when it was hoped from the Chelsea point of view the deal was completed.
Kenyon said:"Everybody expected negotiations to go close to the wire and that's what it will do but we're confident it will happen.
"There are no hitches, it's just a lengthy process."
Now, have the club actually talked to each other on the deal.
Both sides must agree on a transfer fee before personal terms with the player can be thrashed out.
Has this not happened?
Have Chelsea embarrassed themselves on the world stage they so desperately hope to conquer?
The transfer deadline is Monday. Chelsea had hoped to play Robinho against Spurs on Sunday. It's not looking good.
Meanwhile Shaun Wright-Phillips has returned to Manchester City for an undisclosed fee.
Undisclosed because Chelsea do not want to be embarrassed again on how much they lost in transfer fees for the player they bought for £25m.
City were happy to agree to this as they got him a bit cheaper than they would otherwise had paid.
The fee was believed to be about £9m. Work out the loss for yourself.