Discussions by football fans across the twitter-sphere over the last few days have been awash with reaction to what transpired on deadline day and, in case you missed it, Manchester United didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory what with only one of their three, or four if you believe a move for Leighton Baines was in the offing, moves transpiring into actual transfer business; the signing of Marouane Fellaini from Everton.
United’s failed deals were those of the attempted purchase of Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera and the loan move for Portuguese full-back Fabio Coentrao. Real Madrid came out on Tuesday to explain the reason the Coentrao deal failed but as far as Herrera’s switch goes, no-one knows what went on for sure.
Step in then, Ander Herrera, who today held a press conference in an attempt to clarify his position regarding his failed switch; a move many saw coming as you can imagine it must be a tad awkward for a player to be involved in a last-minute move to a, with all due respect, bigger club that falls apart as he may have felt the need to smooth over his relationship with the club’s fans.
Herrera told reporters that whilst he was flattered by United’s interest, personal terms were never discussed; but of course we already had an inkling of that, it’s the involvement of the “imposter” lawyers who seemingly caused negotiations to fall apart that had everyone confused and whilst many had hoped that Herrera’s comments today would help clarify the situation, they only served to muddy the waters a tad.
“The lawyers who were at the LFP offices did not represent me, these are questions which United must answer. ” – Ander Herrera on the mystery lawyers who seemingly scuppered his Manchester United switch
David Moyes’ club are expected to return with an offer for the man widely regarded as one of the best midfield prospects in Spain right now but Herrera ensured fans that he is very happy at Athletic Bilbao and was keen to show strong faith to the club who had took such a firm stance in their negotiations with United over the days leading up to the deadline.
With Herrera also denying any involvement with the mystery lawyers and Manchester United keeping tight-lipped about the scenario, it’s looking like we may never get the answers as to why the lawyers were really there in the first place. In the meantime though, everyone has their own opinion about why this deal fell apart but if, on the off-chance, Manchester United do come out with an explanation then you can be sure we’ll keep you all right up to date with it here at Fortitude!