Crawley Town FC might be languishing in the echelons of League One - but that did not stop them 'signing' Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo on Transfer Day.

The club cheekily tweeted they had made preparations to sign the super trio and even posted a picture of their new Crawley Town FC shirts emblazoned with Messi, Bale and Ronaldo's names.

The message “Paperwork done. Helipad ready. Just need three squiggles. Can anyone help with phone numbers?” went viral online, with nearly 15,000 re-tweets.

Fan blog The Bleacher Report UK said Crawley Town FC might not sign the superstars but had “won Twitter”.

Paperwork’s done. Helipad ready. Just need three squiggles. Can anyone help with phone numbers? #DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/Zps7B6wkiG

— Crawley Town (@crawleytown) January 31, 2014

Fans praised “Crawley Town's deadline day banter” with even rival Crystal Palace FC supporters admitting the club proved to be in the Premier League when it came to humour.

Now the shirts are being auctioned by The Argus Appeal, the newspaper's charity, which supports good causes across Sussex.

Full details of how people can get their hands on the shirts - signed by current Crawley Town FC players if the winning bidder desires - will be revealed in The Argus at a later date.

The tweet was the brainchild of Crawley Town press officer (and former Argus sports reporter) Bruce Talbot and commercial manager Ewan Dunlop.

Yesterday Mr Talbot said: “We did this in good spirits on transfer deadline day.

“We had the helipad ready but unfortunately we could not find their phone numbers.

“We are happy for the shirts to be auctioned for The Argus Appeal. It is a wonderful cause.”

Elsa Gillio, from the Argus Appeal, said: “This was really generous of Crawley Town and we hope the shirts raise a lot of money for The Argus Appeal.”

What might the star players like to do in Crawley?

The Hawth Theatre - according to Crawley Borough Council it “offers one of the liveliest and most diverse programmes of arts and performance in the south east”.

Crawley Leisure Park includes a Nandos, Harvester and Cineworld.

Laserhub - the players could enjoy shooting one another with taser-style guns.

If the players were bored of shopping they could rest in Crawley's Memorial Gardens, a green spot in the middle of the town.