Real Madrid have thrashed out a £29m deal with United with goalkeeper Keylor Navas will join United in part-exchange……but the paperwork was not submitted in time for the Spanish deadlineDavid De Gea’s dream move to Real Madrid is under major threat after the two clubs failed to submit the relevant paperwork to the Spanish ruling bodies, the LFP.
The deadline for the Spanish transfer window passed at 11:59pm on Monday and it is understood that the league were still to ratify the documents in time.
De Gea, whose £29 million move to Real Madrid had been agreed on Monday afternoon in a deal that would see Keylor Navas join United, had passed a medical and agreed personal terms. He is in his girlfriend’s home in Madrid awaiting to see whether the move can be salvaged and if the LFP will give special dispensation to the move.
As of Monday night, he early indications were that Madrid would pay United around £19m and allow Keylor Navas – valued by the two clubs to be worth £10m – to head to Manchester as part of the deal. It brings the total valuation of the deal to £29m and Navas is expected be De Gea’s direct replacement as first-choice in the United goal. Sergio Romero will be his understudy.
Madrid will be the happier of the two parties after United had spent the summer demanding a fee in the region of £35m for De Gea. United’s executive vice-chairman was determined not to allow the club to lose face in the transfer market and be seen as inferior to Real Madrid. Indeed, United chiefs even headed into the final day of the Spanish transfer window believing that they would receive a world-record fee for the goalkeeper and eclipse the £32m that Juventus paid to Parma for Gianluigi Buffon in 2001.
Madrid, however, viewed that valuation as unrealistic, due to the fact that De Gea’s contract at Manchester United was due to expire next summer and in the knowledge that his relationship with manager Louis van Gaal and goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek had completely broken down.
De Gea’s powerful agent Jorge Mendes facilitated the negotiations as the two clubs brought an end to the posturing and, remarkably, held conducive talks for the very first time this summer.
In Madrid, sources close to the Spanish club believed that United had been left red-faced after failing to maintain their stance and compromising on a considerably lower fee on Monday afternoon. It also follows United’s failure to sign centre-back Sergio Ramos, who intimated that he would head to Old Trafford only to then sign a new long-term contract at Real Madrid.
United will argue that they have received a good fee for a player whose contract expires next summer while they have ensured a replacement is in situ to replace De Gea. It is, however, almost identical to the deal that Madrid first suggested at the start of the summer, only for United to insist on a £35m fee or a player in exchange.
De Gea, for his part, was in Madrid on Monday as he is due to meet up with the Spanish national team at their Las Rozas training base this afternoon after concluding the deal.
The United goalkeeper will be relieved to finally conclude a deal that went down to the wire but which has been nearly ten months in the making. De Gea first confided to friends that Madrid were interested in him as early as last October and after a painstaking period of consideration, he decided in April that this was the right time to return to Spain, where his girlfriend also lives. He rejected all attempts by the Old Trafford club to renew his deal, turning down a £200,000-a-week deal and subsequently endured harsh treatment by Louis van Gaal.
De Gea, for example, was privately furious when Van Gaal claimed in August that he had refused to play for United. The Dutchman also ordered to train with the reserves for much of the past three weeks and he was told that he would not be welcome to join the United squad at away games.
Many inside Carrington were bemused by the treatment who has always been regarded by his peers as an outstanding professional but De Gea refused to rise to Van Gaal’s bait. He continued to do as the club requested, training every day and sitting in the stands at home games as Mendes assured him that the deal would come to fruition. On Monday night, De Gea’s patience was finally rewarded as he sealed his return to the Spanish capital.
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