Madrid’s statement detailing the whys and wherefores of Monday includes a number of points which are worthy of highlighting.
"1. Manchester United didn’t open any path of negotiation for the registration rights to David de Gea until yesterday [Monday] morning."
If this is true, then United can talk about having done everything possible needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt. Six months after being advised that De Gea wanted out, and four months after he last played a competitive game for the club, their decision to play the waiting game has left them with a wantaway goalkeeper stuck in their first-team squad.
"3. When Manchester United entered into these negotiations yesterday morning they did so subject to being able to reach an agreement with the Real Madrid player Keylor Navas, so that he would join the British club from this season, and were informed that they were in contact with the representatives of said player."
Why did United leave it so late to make an approach regarding Navas? If they saw the Costa Rican as a sufficient answer to their new De Gea-shaped hole, why didn’t the two clubs suck it up and come to the table much sooner?
"4. Real Madrid and Manchester United reach a rapid agreement on the transfer of both players. After the drafting of the relevant contractual documents required and in order to proceed with sufficient time to process both the Fifa Transfer Matching System (TMS) entry time and LFP registration, Real Madrid forwarded the contracts to Manchester United at 13:39 Spanish time.
"5. Manchester United sent its comments on the contracts eight hours later, at 21:43 Spanish time, including minor modifications. Not being relevant, all changes were accepted immediately by Real Madrid, with the intention to register the players with both TMS and the LFP."
In the grouping of these two points, Madrid are clearly trying to intimate that United took far too long returning the contracts. But in a three-month transfer window, why was either side waiting until the final 12 hours to get a deal done? Contracts are not something to be rushed, and companies as well versed in employment law as the two clubs are should have known better than to leave such details until the last minute.
United didn’t help things by taking eight hours – if, indeed, the Madrid timings are accurate – but it would have been equally as irresponsible to rush through paperwork at the cost of any unacceptable details the original contracts contained.
"7. Manchester United reached a final agreement with the representatives of Keylor Navas at 23:53 Spanish time and it was at that time the contracts were sent to the player to be signed."
Seven minutes? Really?! After weeks of dallying?
"8. Manchester United entered the TMS data from the David de Gea deal, and not those of Keylor Navas, at 00:00 Spanish time, simultaneously referring to the signed Real Madrid contracts. Real Madrid received the full documentation at 00:02 and tried to access the TMS but found that it was already closed."
United sent Navas’ contract at midnight? At a time they knew would be too late for Madrid to reciprocate and close off the deals? Are those the actions of a club that truly wanted to get an agreement finalised?
"9. At 00:26 Spanish time, the computer system of Fifa TMS made an invitation to Real Madrid to fill out the data for the player David de Gea, given that the deadline for registration in England remains open to this day [Tuesday]. Real Madrid decided to refer the contract to the LFP, knowing that the deadlines had expired."
Was there no attempt to contact the LFP and lodge their intention to sign De Gea and sell Navas? Did the club not do what they could to hurry United up or put everything possible in place to turn around a deal? Surely they got worried about the timing before 00:26?
"10. In short, Real Madrid has done everything necessary, and at all times, to implement these two transfers."
And this is what it comes down to. Neither Manchester United nor Real Madrid ‘has done everything necessary’. These were two transfers that could so easily have been agreed, signed off and submitted long before the season started… long before pre-season in fact.
Both clubs made significant errors in attempting to gain the higher ground in the transfer process, and as a result they have both lost out.
United are now a club who have alienated their best player. If Van Gaal was right about him not being in the right frame of mind to play in recent weeks, surely their behaviour in recent days and the outcome of the entire saga will only have made him more frustrated, distracted and disheartened. How can he possibly step out at Old Trafford again without reflecting on another chance to grace the Santiago Bernabeu having passed him by?
Madrid, meanwhile, will be forced to pin their hopes on Navas, a man they so clearly saw more as a makeweight for the goalkeeper they really wanted than for his own qualities on the pitch. Can the Costa Rican put that out of his mind when it comes to the crunch games this season, no matter how professional he attempts to be?
In this case there are simply no winners. Neither club got the player they wanted, neither player will be playing for the club that showed faith in them. And it wasn’t because of either institution’s actions on Monday, but instead because of their belligerence over a period of months.
United and Madrid each played with fire, and both were duly burnt in the most spectacular of fashions. Like a pair of squabbling schoolchildren, it is probably fair to surmise that they are both as bad as each other. This has to be one of the world's greatest ever transfer blunders
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