Manchester United are calm and relaxed over the situation of David De Gea's move to Real Madrid.

De Gea transfer to Madrid falls at hurdle, Madrid may appeal

The Reds were ready to see De Gea depart the club after four years at Old Trafford, and were ready to welcome Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas as part of the deal.

However, with the Spanish deadline coming a day before the English deadline, the clubs faced a rush to complete the paperwork in order for the deal to be verified by FIFA and the LFP (Spanish League).

Initial reports suggested that United had deliberately sent the documents one minute after the midnight deadline (Central European Time) to spite Los Blancos, who had beaten them in battles over defender Sergio Ramos earlier this summer as well as full-back Fabio Coentrao in 2013.


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However, it now appears that United did in fact want the deal to go through and sent the documents just minutes before the deadline, such was the limited time frame. At this moment, it is not thought that Real Madrid are at fault for the supposed failure of the transfer, failing to pass the documents to the LFP in time.

Whether there is enough for Madrid to appeal, the club saying they have proof that the paperwork arrived before the deadline, we will find out soon.

Distraught De Gea expected to quickly re-settle at United

However, despite all this, with De Gea "distraught" at the house of his girlfriend, the Spanish pop star Edurne, United expect the Spaniard to return to Manchester and act professionally despite the mess of this transfer saga.

They received their first bid for De Gea at lunchtime on the Spanish deadline day and see Madrid at fault for the incomplete deal. Some reports suggest that the Madrid board, with Floretino Perez in charge, wanted to wait late to get De Gea as they thought United would lower their asking price.

That did not happen and United were set to receive a figure in the region of £29million with Keylor Navas included. Navas is now unhappy at the Santiago Bernabeu, and was happy to move to England and United.

Navas was keen to join United boss Louis van Gaal but the Dutch boss now expects De Gea to quickly re-settle as a United player. 

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About the author
Harry Robinson
Deputy Editor-in-Chief at VAVEL UK, and Manchester United Editor.