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| Real Madrid and Man Utd are now at war over who was to blame for the move not being completed |
THE two biggest clubs in the world were locked in a bitter war of words last night over the dramatic collapse of David de Gea’s transfer.
Manchester United sensationally accused Real Madrid of going cold and purposely sabotaging the £29million deal that would have taken De Gea to the Bernabeu and brought Kelyor Navas to Old Trafford.
Senior sources at Old Trafford claimed Real would not allow Navas to fly to Manchester for a medical on a private jet they had standing by, put pressure on his agent not to return their calls and dragged their feet over sending documentation to the Spanish League after a poll in a newspaper suggested 80 per cent of their fans wanted the Costa Rica international to stay.
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| Louis van Gaal now has the difficult decision of what to do with De Gea |
United also countered Real’s claim they had initiated negotiations early on Monday, insisting the Spanish giants phoned them first.
For their part Real blamed an eight-hour delay by United in sending back documents relating to Navas’ transfer as the reason they missed Monday night’s transfer deadline in Spain.
United say the FA backed their version of events and were prepared to support them if Real had launched an appeal with FIFA. It is also understood that a desperate Navas phoned United yesterday morning to see if anything could be done to resurrect the deal.
Both clubs issued strongly-worded statements to put their side of events that caused one of the biggest transfer bust-ups in football history.
United’s said: “The club feels compelled to provide some clarification with the following facts. It is our understanding that the deals couldn’t happen because Real Madrid didn’t upload David’s documents onto TMS [FIFA’s international transfer system] in time (Manchester United did). Real Madrid didn’t upload David’s documents to the Spanish league in time, per reports it seems some 28 minutes after the deadline.”
The statement added: “The fact that Manchester United filed the papers on time was acknowledged by the Football Association, who offered to support that claim in any discussions with FIFA. The club offered this assistance, as well as its own time-stamped documents to Real Madrid but they have chosen not to go down this route.”
In their statement, Real claim they were not to blame for the collapse of the deal pointing the finger at United for leaving it too late to complete the requisite paperwork.
They said: “In short, Real has done everything necessary, and at all times, for these two transfer to go through.”
It leaves Madrid-born De Gea in limbo but United sources insist that despite his devastation that his dream move has collapsed, they remain confident of re-intergrating him in Louis van Gaal’s squad.
And there is a chance he could return to the team for their next match against Liverpool after the international break.
He has been named in both their Champions League and Premier League squads for the season – and if he plays in Europe he would be ineligible to play for Real in the competition they made a renwed bid to sign him in January.
But such is the level of bitterness between the clubs it looks De Gea will have to run down his contract and leave as a free agent next summer.
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