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Burnley rebuffed it immediately and that left Portsmouth with little more than 24 hours to get Nugent off the wage bill, leading to them setting up a deal with Blackpool for the striker to go out on a season long loan.
Unfortunately for the two clubs, Nugent, who hit the tabloid headlines with his use of his mobile phone three years ago, had switched it off and no one could get hold of him, thus making it impossible for the deal to go through.
"If the player hadn't gone missing, we'd have had David Nugent," said 'Pool boss Ian Holloway. "With twenty minutes to go we had Nugent signed on, but no one could locate him, so he couldn't sign his contract and it all fell through. So that's one that wriggled out of the net, but it happens.
"I thought he was one that was worth trying to get, so because of that we put some other deals on hold. Nugent was the main one we targeted. We didn't miss many, but unfortunately that was one we did and it wasn't possible to get a back up with twenty minutes left."
Holloway though was unhappy about the rules brought about by transfer windows and referring to not being able to get a back up he added: "Should I have had to worry about that? Not really, I don't think. These rules are stupid. They should be banned.
"I heard Michel Platini was coming to our friendly in Latvia the other night but unfortunately I couldn't find him, which is just as well for him because I'd love a word about the rules."