Given that we've such a long-standing interest and were, apparently, willing to pay the release clause, I really really hope we're planning on putting the time in to get this done before January. If it was just a matter of us being naive about the length of time required, I'd hope there's still a chance...
Ander Herrera is a Manchester United Player!
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It's not only Spain that thinks Man Utd made a real mess of it. Everyone from everywhere thinks the same.
After calming down a bit I admit that I may have overreacted. Taking example from the Martinez deal, it took Bayern weeks to finally wrap it up. It could be that it was naive on our part to think it could be done quicker. As why we leave it so late, perhaps the player hi self only made himself available so late. Remember we did ask Bilbao a few times about him in the past, but only now we know that the player is willing to move. Also you have to factor Herrera quickness to push this deal. Could it be that he wanted the move before we made our move, but he infor he agent too late.
In the end, this could be easily about United just doesnt have enough time to go through the terms of the deal and decided to pull the plug. If this is what happened then our relatioship with the player should be fine. And it may give us a chance to ressurect this deal in January.
In the end, this could be easily about United just doesnt have enough time to go through the terms of the deal and decided to pull the plug. If this is what happened then our relatioship with the player should be fine. And it may give us a chance to ressurect this deal in January.
I cannot see any way back for us to get Herrera. I think we have blown that bridge to pieces.
Interesting, we might not be the ones at fault after all:
I think it could still be done. Need to convince Herrera that theres little we could do given the nature of the deal. Will be difficult but it could be done
Hmm..sounds like they should be renamed Athletic Dildao.
Get this wrapped up in January with Conetroa (however you spell it). Please get it done early too.. Bunch of useless cnuts.
We can still do this in January. If Herrera does not blame us fully for all that happened.
So basically a release clause counts for nothing?
If this latest report is true, might end up more like Llorente in our favour, and we'll get him later.
I haven't been following this detail but any chance we're getting an official statement from one of the parties involved - United, Bilbao or the player himself? There doesn't seem to be much if any clarity on what went wrong.
In fairness man, United would most likely have been advised by those sports lawmen & they probably told they could swing the deal before the deadline.
Those lads would have been on the clock with massive reddies rollin in aswell - win-win for them regardless & their mugs in the media, albeit as some band of fraudsters. The feckin irony - lawyers being accused of being dodgy shocker!
The underlining factor here, is United's transfer strategy for this window was sunday league shizzle - absolutely diabolical in every way. There was plenty of time to draft a list potential targets & weigh up the possibilities of success. Instead, we seemed to have spent about 3 weeks will-we or wont-we with Thiago & then when that was put to bed - we jumped on the Cesc to United quest, wastin probably another 3 weeks or more aswell & with little or no activity elsewhere - that's how it looks after yesterday shambles.
I always thought of our team as being some kind of super-efficient machine, leavin no stone left unturned etc. There couldnt have been that much of a dismantling on Gills admin/transfer team could there? It was supposed to have been a smooth transfer of duties from Gill to Ed, so that would include the retention of corporate memory for transfers etc.
Anyway, I feel sorry for that poor Ander lad. They're quite patriotic around those parts & he's gonna be getting the Judas taunts most likely. I think the owners of Athletic need a bitta scrutiny as to whats negative about bringing in €30m+ from a young man's transfer to one of the most famous clubs in the world. Ander's people should be proud of him that he's flyin the flag for all of them & their culture, on such a world stage!
We should give Herrera the money to buy out his contract under the Webster ruling and then sign him on a free if Bilbao did that.
Sounds like United haven't had enough time to fully understand the workings of the contract loophole. jojojo mentioned this earlier in a discussion and probably hit the nail on the head:
Then we should get started on this now if we want to have the deal confirmed early in the January window.
Why are Bilbao so stubborn? I understand the fact that money itself is not that big a draw given the small talent pool available to them but I would have thought their actions could make young Basque players think twice before joining them in the future
thanks for the article.
That part sounds truely badass, but isn't that illegal, well probably not if the financial council is doing the blackmailing. There were a lot of rumours last summer during the Martinez deal that in theory those release clauses can only be triggered from Spanish clubs but don't count for international transfer dealings and none of the Bayern representatives ever said what actually happened to make it work in the end, so it really makes sense that we pulled something crazy like that to get Martinez.
Imagine being sought after by Manchester United on three different occasions. The last one almost ending in a transfer.
I really hope our interest doesn't stop with last night's debacle.
I really hope our interest doesn't stop with last night's debacle.
The brass should be working on this as of 8-9am this morning.
It's funny, as they actually do need money for their stadium, wasn't a part of the planned deals that we'd play a friendly with them to drum up more cash?
If the loophole in the tax were established and understood for the Martinez deal and we used the exact same people, why did the deal fall through?
I suppose for some but for others Bilbao's stance is not only understandable but is something that should be encouraged. For some Basques, by no means all but a decent enough amount, Athletic Club is an expression of their Basque identity. Playing for the club is an honour. Can you imagine if you grew up in a household where it was drilled into you from birth that you were Basque and that Athletic Bilbao was the Basque club, your parents took you to the games, your free time was basically based around Bilbao's fixtures and the high point of the year was beating the Castillian club? Etxeberria played the last season of his career for Athletic for free...
The latest theory, from a very reliable source, is that Bilbao refused to let the money be transferred into their account. They did this with Bayern Munich for the Martinez deal, but Bayern got the Government to put pressure on them to allow the transfer, we didn't have the time to do this.
Not enough time for this Football Council to have some less than gentle words in Bilbao ears.
The only way I can see United getting him is if we come out and say we didn't have time and still want him. Blame Bilbao for stalling or something. It's clearly our fault for waiting and general ineptitude, but there has to be a way to save face with the player because he's going to catch hell for at least 4 months.
If this be case... we should have done our transfer business much earlier to overcome such unforeseen obstacles...
We could have easily saved 4 mil !!!
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to hear what he says. He might not be the wisest if he criticizes Bilboa.
Time + sudden awareness we were being taken to the cleaners to get Fellaini. There's one thing worse than explaining why you ended paying 4M more than needed a month ago (without having had the player for key games), and that's overpaying 4M on Fellaini AND Herrera. That would blow the agreed/expected transfer budget and invite far more enquiry from the bosses.
I don't think it was ever either/or, more a case of both within a certain budget or one alone.
So basically, our hopes rested on Bilbao's stubbornness, anything else was destined to fail?
Will be interesting to see what the actual bid was, if it was 35.9eu, then it seems there nothing else we could have done.
Yeah, he said the deal was practically impossible. He was the journalist who broke the news of our bid on Thursday. Hopefully we'll go back and get him in January.
Hmm...thanks. Will be interesting to hear any non-speculative detail. I suppose he'll be careful not burn his bridges either way but the general thrust of what he says should give us a good idea on who's to blame.
Would be a real pity if we genuinely want him and have antagonised him in all this last minute mess.
If thats true it sounds like we were led to believe a lot of things but the likelihood of it happening from the off was zero...
To play the devils advocate and conspiracy theorist, any chance we purposely "pulled out" of this deal because Fellaini eventually came through?
I was actually a bit skeptical we were willing to pay close to 60m for 2 midfielders! Its not like we've even sold Anderson and then of course there is Cleverley and Carrick still at the club.
I was actually a bit skeptical we were willing to pay close to 60m for 2 midfielders! Its not like we've even sold Anderson and then of course there is Cleverley and Carrick still at the club.
If these latest developments or revealings are indeed true, then my only issue would be why did we wait so long to make it happen. Of course, the player might have delayed on making up his mind too. I really hope this explanation is true so that we can go back in January to get him as I think he's a talent and what could be missing from our team.
In fairness, he said that these deals are extremely difficult & just like in England - many people in Spain hate United as much, so many will have agenda's when reporting this story. Don't recall him sayin we made a mess of it, but he said we were unprepared for this type of deal - does that make us any worse than Bayern though. Sure it took them a bloody month or more to sort their Martinez deal out - doubt they were expectin that & I'd say the Laffabaffajaffa lads were on the clock & milked the complete absolute shit out of it!
agree with stretch. Praying we are not at fault here (apart from being stupidly thick with time) Would love the chance to sign him again. It's down to the players interpretation of events really. personally I think we bottled it at the last second because we're tight cnuts.
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