A special suit, a dodgy fax machine and the Spaniard- What really happened?

mariachi-19

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Working in the legal industry, we dont use fax. We havent for a very very long time. We have these wonderful pieces of technology called scanners and they work quite well when attached to email.

I remember when this went down and De Gea's dream move was scuttered... but I didnt belive it for one second.

Multi million pound deals dont just fall apart because of dodgy fax machines.

Who pulled out of the deal? Was it Madrid or was it De Gea. It was not in Uniteds best interest and im sure Dave would never have signed the new deal thereafter had we been the party who withdrew.
 

elmo

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My theory was that Madrid pulled out.

They probably thought they would call van gaal's bluff that he would sit de Gea out for the season and they could just sign him on a free once his contract was up.

Woodward capitalized on this and offered de Gea a much bigger contract that Madrid was offering him and the rest is history.
 

Tarrou

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If anyone is capable of bolloxing up a deal unintentionally, it's Woodward

so my moneys on him
 

Relfy

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I can't believe that any company nowadays conducts such a huge transaction via fax and fax only. It would make sense perhaps if via email and fax. Definitely something weird happened during the final hours of this transfer.
 

Himannv

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It looks like the fault was totally on Real Madrid's side. They were constantly delaying this thing by trying to get him for the cheapest amount possible and I think either an actual technical glitch happened in the last minute or they pulled out and thought they could get him for free next season or for a lesser price in January.
 

roonster09

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I dont think it has anything to do with fax, all the transfer documents are uploaded to some portal. The last few exchanges via email or some form was delayed, which means they missed the deadline to upload the documents to portal.
 

clarkydaz

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The story I recall was Madrid stitched DeGea up not wanting to spend the money. Thats why they left it until last day of the window. The club even released a statement about Madrid putting the ball in their own net
 

Thepinhead

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I am pretty sure Real Madrid was hoping we were bluffing about the fee and tried to call it. They probably promised De Gea they would buy him and hoped he would force a move. It didn't happen and De Gea was probably angry about it which made him sign a new contract. If it really was a dodgy fax machine they could have just signed him in the january transfer window.
 

SirAF

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They, obviously, don’t use a literal fax machine. All such documents are uploaded to something called Transfer Matching System. There were a few articles about it at that time.

United’s statement:

Manchester United notes Real Madrid’s statement on the attempt to sign David De Gea and sell Navas to Manchester United. The Club feels compelled to provide some clarification with the following facts.

• Manchester United did not seek contact from Real Madrid for the sale of David. David is a key member of our squad and the club’s preference was not to sell.

• No offer was received for David until yesterday.

• At lunchtime yesterday, Real Madrid made its first offer to buy David. A deal was agreed between the clubs, which included Navas being transferred to Old Trafford. The deals were dependent on each other.

• In the last several hours of the process, with Navas at the Real Madrid training ground, Real Madrid were controlling the documentation processes of David, Navas and Real Madrid. Manchester United was in control only of the documentation of Manchester United.

• Manchester United sent transfer documents for both players to Real Madrid at 2042 BST. David’s documentation was returned by Real Madrid to Manchester United without the signatory page at 22:32 BST.

• At 22:40 BST, minutes before the deadline, major changes to the documentation came through to Manchester United which immediately put the deals at risk.





• Only at 2255 BST were the documents that are needed to cancel David’s contract received by Manchester United from Real Madrid.

• At this point Navas’ documentation was still not returned by Real Madrid.

• At 2258 BST, the transfer agreement was sent back by Manchester United, uploaded onto TMS and accepted – all before the deadline.

• It is our understanding that the deals couldn’t happen because:

- Real Madrid didn’t upload David’s documents onto TMS 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 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 timestamped documents to Real Madrid but they have chosen not to go down this route.

Manchester United acts appropriately and efficiently in its transfer dealings. The Club is delighted that its fan-favourite double Player of the Year, David de Gea, remains a Manchester United player.
 

Ibi Dreams

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As I recall Madrid tried to blame it on us, and we released that statement more or less proving that we weren't at fault for whatever happened.
 

Big Ben Foster

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Thought it was already proven that there was no fax machine. It's one of those myths that will never go away.
 

jojojo

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Real Madrid didn't bid until the final day - prior to that they'd been playing chicken, asking us to name a price. Their offer when it came was for Navas + cash.

When we accepted the offer in principle, we still had to confirm the contract with Navas - before allowing both deals to go ahead. This happened "just in time" for us to upload all the data to the online system before the deadline. Real Madrid missed their side of the deadline.

Madrid cut it too fine. Deliberately? Maybe. United's version is here:
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...fer-to-real-madrid-denying-they-10481930.html
 

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Real Madrid didn't bid until the final day - prior to that they'd been playing chicken, asking us to name a price. Their offer when it came was for Navas + cash.

When we accepted the offer in principle, we still had to confirm the contract with Navas - before allowing both deals to go ahead. This happened "just in time" for us to upload all the data to the online system before the deadline. Real Madrid missed their side of the deadline.

Madrid cut it too fine. Deliberately? Maybe. United's version is here:
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...fer-to-real-madrid-denying-they-10481930.html
If the transfer had happened, I wonder who would be our keeper now? No way it would be Navas...
 

SATA

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I don’t think Madrid pulled out of the deal. There was news Navas was already at the airport waiting to fly to Manchester, wasn’t he? I firmly believe Ed was the one behind the failed move, whether it’s the fax machine or other issues only the concerned parties knew
 

T_Model101

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I seem to remember reading that Madrid offered £13M for De Gea earlier on in the window
They didn't make a serious offer until the final day of the window and got their just desserts
 

baskinginthesun

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I don’t think Madrid pulled out of the deal. There was news Navas was already at the airport waiting to fly to Manchester, wasn’t he? I firmly believe Ed was the one behind the failed move, whether it’s the fax machine or other issues only the concerned parties knew
Why? Seems it was Madrid pissing about. I mean, if you are serious about a move you don't submit paperwork 30 mins prior to the window closing.
 

thepolice123

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Real was dallying with the deal and hoped to snag him right under our noses with a cheap fee.

DDG probably felt that they were being insincere and signed a new contract with us. I think deep down he loves the club and wished to stay.

The fax machine sounded like some bizarre excuse came up on the go and someone in the club decided it to release to troll the media.
 

manutddjw

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My theory was that Real Madrid led him on the whole summer constantly telling him, we were asking too much money or telling him we were communicating he wasn't for sale. Madrid then made a half hearted attempt on deadline day, just to show they tried. Their end goal was always to stall until January when they could have signed him for free.
 

momo83

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Exactly... he’s pulled off some pretty big deals, bigger deals then David Gill and his predecessor were ever willing to sanction or lost out to rival clubs eg Hazard, Aguero, Ronaldinho, Verane, Benzema to name just a few.
 

momo83

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De Gea never wanted to leave. He was just acting as if he wanted to return to Spain to shut his GF up, hence why he signed a new contract and rejected RM the following year.
 

elmo

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I don’t think Madrid pulled out of the deal. There was news Navas was already at the airport waiting to fly to Manchester, wasn’t he? I firmly believe Ed was the one behind the failed move, whether it’s the fax machine or other issues only the concerned parties knew
There's a reason why we've published our side of the story for the transfer breakdown and the FA is willing to back us up on it while Real have kept their mouth shut throughout.
 

RedDevilRoshi

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Man Utd will have their side of the story and Real Madrid will have their own version of the events. No one really knows.

I reckon it was us (well Ed) that f***** it up. De Gea was already in Madrid with his girlfriend waiting patiently for the paperwork to reach Madrid and do the necessary medical, contract signing etc. I’m sure it was also mentioned that Navas was ready to fly to Manchester as part of the deal.

Deep down we didn’t want to get rid of him and rightly so. It peed off Madrid which isn’t a bad thing.

Also who on earth uses a fax machine in this day and age? I’ve never seen nor used one in my life and just found it very peculiar unless it was part of Ed’s secret master plan to scupper the deal.