Ander Herrera is a Manchester United Player!

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Antisocial said:
Surprised at how positive he makes everything sound - I expect he's been coached on how to handle things there, but still reassuring that we might not have destroyed relations to quite the extent many feared.
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To be fair, it's a huge jump from Bilbao to United, and if we left things on decent terms, and want him badly enough I.e are actually willing to pay the release clause figure (which I don't think we were ever wanted to ), then it can happen in jan.
 
Until next summer, goodbye Ander. It was a pleasure sharing deadline day madness with you.

Time to pretend nothing ever happened and Fellaini #31 is our midfield maestro!
 
amolbhatia100 said:
Werenr the lawyers hired by us, as by bayern, to get around the heavy taxes involved?
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Everyone but United are of this opinion it seems. Quite bizarre really.

Herrera said United has quesions to answer, which was stingy but fair. The more we grill the ones in charge of our dealings this summer the better chance we have of not seeing it happen again.
 
ISSYNAZAR said:
Until next summer, goodbye Ander. It was a pleasure sharing deadline day madness with you.

Time to pretend nothing ever happened and Fellaini #31 is our midfield maestro!
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If we were serious about wanting him and he wasn't a last minute thought, then we should be back in Jan.
 
Great to hear this. I'm a bit concerned that there are questions we need to answer as said by him. Maybe Moyes will give clarity on it as well from the club side. But it certainly seems as if he's making sure Bilbao fans don't despise him and at the same time letting us know he would love to play for us.
 
Hopefully Moyes is less concerned than Sir Alex about January buys and just taps him up then, preferably not with a day of the window left.
 
Skywarden said:
Everyone but United are of this opinion it seems. Quite bizarre really.

Herrera said United has quesions to answer, which was stingy but fair. The more we grill the ones in charge of our dealings this summer the better chance we have of not seeing it happen again.
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Cina said:
Some are saying they were hired by Herrera to try and justify our club not being in the wrong, or something.
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Not sure why Herrera would hire them. Makes little to no sense. Especially when the same law firm helped bayern with the Martinez deal.

Anyways, it's not important now. What matters is that we didn't meet the required fee.
 
Cina said:
Some are saying they were hired by Herrera to try and justify our club not being in the wrong, or something.
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I'm more or less convinced that we hired the lawyers. Disowning them wasn't too smart but I don't see it as a big deal either
 
Cina said:
Hopefully Moyes is less concerned than Sir Alex about January buys and just taps him up then, preferably not with a day of the window left.
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Rare to see clubs go for a player second time but this does seem to involve unusual circumstances. I do hope we go for him again but I'm doubting it. One side of the story is that we didn't meet his valuation. If we didn't then, we never will. Well keep testing peoples resolve with bidding 5 to 10 million lesser than what would be sufficient. The other side is that Bilbao created hurdles in which case I can see our new rather incompetent team getting scared off so as to evade further p.r. Blows to the balls.
 
It felt right...

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The Story Behind Manchester United's Attempt to Sign Ander Herrera

By Guillem Balague (Guest Columnist) on September 3, 2013

Shambolic, farcical, grotesque, outrageous and simply unbelievable are just some of the words used to describe Manchester United’s botched attempt to sign Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera on the last day of a transfer window.

Here's what happened.

About three days ago my sources in Spain tell me Manchester United showed an interest in the Athletic Bilbao midfielder. A buy-out clause of 36 million euros seemed excessive (and would have more or less equaled the club’s record fee of the £30.75 million paid for Dimitar Berbatov), but United, in the eyes of those involved in the deal, appeared to indicate that they were prepared to meet it.

On the table for the player was a five-year deal, with an agreed four million euros a year. My Bilbao sources tell me Herrera was willing to put part of the wages first offered (five million) towards the deal. What an opportunity for a young man to move to such a big club.

The offer from Manchester United arrived—25 million plus five million more. But Athletic, a club that doesn’t need to sell, asked for the full buy-out clause. Whatever the value of the player was a matter of total irrelevance to the Basque club. If you want the player, pay the asking price; no money, no honey.

Enter Guillermo Gutierrez, Alvaro Reig and Rodrigo Garcia from the law firm Laffer Abagados, a large Bilbao-based legal firm with its own sporting section, claiming to represent United at the Spanish Liga’s offices to finalise the deal.

At this point it should be pointed out that we are not talking about three ‘anybodies’ picked up off the street, but representatives of a company with experience in such matters—having handled the tricky and convoluted transfer that took Javier Martinez from Bilbao to Bayern Munich.

They have also represented English clubs in the Premier League before, including Arsenal.

My Liga sources tell me they told officers that they were representing Manchester United and stayed in the offices waiting for communication about what to do, which is unusual behaviour (normally those that come to pay a buy out clause, just leave the cheque and go).

But, United say they don’t know who they are. The Herrera camp say they don’t know who they are. And a lawyer that United use to do deals says they don’t know who they are. Nobody knows why they were there.

The suggestion that senior representatives from the firm turned up in Madrid without having been invited to do so beggars belief. But allegedly, according to my contacts at Athletic and United, nobody knew why they went to La Liga offices. In Bilbao at the moment, Laffer are keeping a dignified silence, despite having been effectively accused of being a trio of sharp-suited shysters. A statement from the company merely said they were unable to comment as they were investigating the matter and may, or may not, have something to say about it at a later date. In the meantime poor Ander Herrera, who was behaved entirely honourably, has missed out on a deal he wanted to happen.

When it was rumoured that Manchester United were sniffing around him, my Spanish sources tell me coach Ernesto Valverde looked to drop him for last weekend’s match at the Bernabeu. Herrera, who has never showed anything other than the greatest commitment to the Bilbao cause, told his manager that he wanted to play and was gutted when left on the bench.

United meanwhile, while perhaps feeling, maybe justifiably, that 36 million euros was a tad excessive would probably have realised in less than a year that they had bought not just a bargain, but an appreciating asset.

Within a year, Herrera would almost undoubtedly, injury permitting, have established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. A player in the Luca Modric mould, he would have blended in perfectly with Marouane Fellaini, and they would probably have worked tremendously well together.

The likelihood now, however, is that we’ll never know, and that’s a real shame. That said, if they do decide he's still a good option, they'll at least know where to find him
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Cina said:
There you go charley, the lawyers didn't represent Herrera. Guess that's that one out the window eh?
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Ha ha, you will have noted how I said it would be in his interest to deny any involvement in this whole affair. People on here crying about the poor little guy let down by big bad United, while now he's acting like this whole thing had no connection to him at all.
I don't blame him. He'll never play for United, as Bilbao will be never lower their price, so best to get this all behind him.
 
charleysurf said:
Ha ha, you will have noted how I said it would be in his interest to deny any involvement in this whole affair. People on here crying about the poor little guy let down by big bad United, while now he's acting like this whole thing had no connection to him at all.
I don't blame him. He'll never play for United, as Bilbao will be never lower their price, so best to get this all behind him.
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Geez, paranoid much?

Why would he lie? It could easily backfire on him.
 
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
 
Cina said:
Oh so we are using Utd's confirmation as proof now are we? Sorry, it's just that earlier it was sort of, completely dismissed.
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I'm not using anything as proof. You seem to be taking what Herrera said at face value mind, whilst simultaneously suggesting that United couldn't be telling the truth if they said they weren't representing them.
 
SteveJ said:
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
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Lawyers aren't like that, surely they just thought their expertise could be helpful. I bet they were even on a free...
 
A dignified and level headed response from him, maybe it's not totally dead yet. Must have been disappointing to the retard who wanted Hererra to publicly criticize the club :rolleyes:
 
SteveJ said:
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
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But they were a convoy from Manchester.
 
SteveJ said:
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
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They work for a well respected law firm and aren't a few stupid, money chasing, attention whoring agents trying to make a deal with a player.
 
SteveJ said:
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
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I haven't read Ballague's article, but I can say with confidence that never would such a situation arise. There is no way that lawyers could try to act on behalf of anyone without having the right agreements beforehand (between themselves and the people they're meant to represent) in place.
 
SteveJ said:
Balague's article makes it sound like these selfless lawyers are now keeping a dignified silence; but who, in this age, would be surprised to learn that their firm saw a chance to make a massive broker's fee, and just turned up out of the blue, uninvited by any of the concerned parties?
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Balague is a clueless shit-stirrer who ought to be slapped in the face by a soggy cucumber for good measures.
 
Well, you guys are more than likely correct. I hope we find out the truth in time.
 
Is it possible they dropped by to offer their services in the hope that United would accept their help, given that they'd worked on the Bayern deal?

I think United really should clarify what happened here, one way or the other. If they really were there because United consulted them then hold your hands up and admit it.
 
It appears they just showed up, hung around a bit and then fecked off, talking about not having the right paperwork or authority to get involved. So either they decided to try and get involved by offering help in a situation they'd had experience in, for a hefty fee and were turned down, or United employed them to consult, but didn't give them the authority they needed.

I'd like to hope its the first scenario, as the second looks much worse in us as a club.
 
The Neviller said:
I'm not using anything as proof. You seem to be taking what Herrera said at face value mind, whilst simultaneously suggesting that United couldn't be telling the truth if they said they weren't representing them.
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Wha'? I quoted the BBC confirmation, never said "this is exactly what happened", merely that it's more conclusive than most of what's been floating around, charley and .. others were basically dismissing it as total bullshit, yet as soon as Herrera flat out says that, it's suddenly now a valid counter-argument to it on their behalf?

You said "Is Herrera saying they didn't represent him stronger proof than United saying they didn't represent them?" which implies you're now using that as a basis yet before you didn't seem to regard it as one.

I'm not sure what's so hard to comprehend about the fact that a person 100% stating something to the press as opposed to confirmation with no quotes is more conclusive towards one end.
 
Is it not likely that we hired them to simply keep our options open? We were trying to negotiate a fee with Bilbao but if that failed it would make sense to give Moyes the option of paying out the buyout clause. Presumably Moyes decided not to do it and we sent the lawyers home.
 
The Neviller said:
Is it possible they dropped by to offer their services in the hope that United would accept their help, given that they'd worked on the Bayern deal?

I think United really should clarify what happened here, one way or the other. If they really were there because United consulted them then hold your hands up and admit it.
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But why? It serves no purpose to disclose anything IMO. Especially if we want to do this deal in the future. Herrera has been very diplomatic about it. Athletic have remained silent as well. So there is no need to open or gobs unnecessarily IMO.
 
The lawyers apparently say:
- their client was not Herrera, his agent or some mate of Herrera's
- you don't go to the LFP to negotiate, they went there to do a formal review of a player's contract (check the clause details in other words)
- you also go to the LFP to hand over the payment when you're ready to act, but they weren't carrying a cheque from United, so no, they didn't get sent away to get the IVA (VAT). In any case none would have been due on an international transaction.

- the details of who sent them are client confidential
- they neither confirmed nor denied that the client was United.

http://www.deia.com/2013/09/04/athletic/herrera-no-era-nuestro-cliente
Incidentally they are an actual corporate law firm not a bunch of no win no fee ambulance chasers.
 
mickeza said:
Is it not likely that we hired them to simply keep our options open? We were trying to negotiate a fee with Bilbao but if that failed it would make sense to give Moyes the option of paying out the buyout clause. Presumably Moyes decided not to do it and we sent the lawyers home.
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IMO this is very likely to have happened.
 
jojojo said:
The lawyers apparently say:
- their client was not Herrera, his agent or some mate of Herrera's
- you don't go to the LFP to negotiate, they went there to do a formal review of a player's contract (check the clause details in other words)
- you also go to the LFP to hand over the payment when you're ready to act, but they weren't carrying a cheque from United, so no, they didn't get sent away to get the IVA (VAT). In any case none would have been due on an international transaction.

- the details of who sent them are client confidential
- they neither confirmed nor denied that the client was United.

http://www.deia.com/2013/09/04/athletic/herrera-no-era-nuestro-cliente
Incidentally they are an actual corporate law firm not a bunch of no win no fee ambulance chasers.
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Jojojo. I presume your a speak Spanish speaker. Are the quotes coming out of his press conference this afternoon accurate?


 
Cina said:
Wha'? I quoted the BBC confirmation, never said "this is exactly what happened", merely that it's more conclusive than most of what's been floating around, charley and .. others were basically dismissing it as total bullshit, yet as soon as Herrera flat out says that, it's suddenly now a valid counter-argument to it on their behalf?

You said "Is Herrera saying they didn't represent him stronger proof than United saying they didn't represent them?" which implies you're now using that as a basis yet before you didn't seem to regard it as one.

I'm not sure what's so hard to comprehend about the fact that a person 100% stating something to the press as opposed to confirmation with no quotes is more conclusive towards one end.
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I thought the disagreement on the "United confirmation, via the BBC" was more concerned with the use of the term "Imposters" which United haven't said. I thought it was pretty universal that United had said these 3 didn't represent them. That was my argument in it all along, that United were saying they had nothing to do with these guys, but weren't calling them imposters.
 
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