Real Madrid confirm David de Gea will stay at Manchester United

Perez addressed media in an official press conference

Real Madrid have confirmed that the deal for Manchester United keeper David de Gea is off the table after Florentino Perez explained the reason behind the botched transfer to the media. The two clubs had agreed a fee of £29 million for the Spanish international in a deal which would see Los Blancos’ keeper Keylor Navas move to Old Trafford, but the move failed to take place due to complications that arose at the last minute.

According to an official statement on the Real Madrid website, Los Blancos have claimed that Manchester United didn’t negotiate for the de Gea transfer until the morning of the deadline day in Spain. They continued to pursue the move despite the difficulties they would have to face on the last day of registration and had even received contact from the Reds regarding a potential exchange deal involving their keeper Keylor Navas.

The two clubs reached a quick agreement for the deal after their officials contacted the representatives of the players. They both had sufficient time to draft and submit the relevant contractual documents to be processed by the FIFA Transfer Matching system (TMS) and the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), but United sent in their paperwork 8 hours after Real Madrid had submitted theirs. The Premier League club had also made small irrelevant changes to the documents which were immediately accepted with the intention of pushing the deal through.

The technological issue

After finalising the signatures of David de Gea and Keylor Navas, Real Madrid sent the contracts to Manchester United at 23:32. United had already entered the TMS data for David de Gea by 00:00 but did not include the data for Navas which created issues Los Blancos, who couldn’t access the system after receiving the documents two minutes past the registration deadline.

Official Announcement. http://t.co/aMEHIQPEqZ pic.twitter.com/z5MpXKQqAx

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) September 1, 2015

At 00:26 hours on the next day, the FIFA TMS made an invitation to Real Madrid telling them to fill in the relevant details for David de Gea from their side. This arose because the deadline for registration in England was still open at the time, leading to the Spanish club referring the contract to the LFP in spite of the deadline expiry. They decided against pursuing any further action on the deal as they had already done everything that was necessary to implement it.

The problem now for both clubs is that they’re left with goalkeepers who may not necessarily be happy staying at the club. It’s a situation that will unravel itself slowly over the next few days.