Manchester United tell Ander Herrera they'll be back for him in January as details of deal's complications emerge
Manchester United tell Ander Herrera they'll be back for him in January as details of deal's complications emerge
Legal complications put a halt to United's deal for the Athletic Bilbao star
Complications: Manchester United missed out on Ander Herrera at the last minute
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Manchester United have assured Ander Herrera they will return in January to sign him, after losing their nerve when the proposed £30.4m transfer hit late complications . United
were scared off by legal implications which meant they had to pay every
penny of the fee up front immediately, and could also potentially have
faced an increase of anything from 20 to 50 per cent, despite promising
the Athletic Bilbao player they would meet his buy out clause.
United’s
worries about the spiraling fee - and particularly about the need to
find such a huge sum that evening when they believed they had a month to
pay - led to a farcical situation where it was claimed IMPOSTERS
arrived at La Liga headquarters, to try to muscle in on the deal and
claim a cut.
In fact, the Mirror can reveal that far from being
imposters, the three representatives who arrived at the league offices
in Madrid were in fact sports law EXPERTS, who were sent to speak to La
Liga officials to try to unravel the massively complicated deal.
Our
understanding is that because United left it so late, there was simply
no time to get a definitive resolution to a difficult situation, and no
chance of raising such a massive figure on the spot...and so they
dramatically pulled the plug.
That has left the player bitterly
disappointed and suspicious that he was used as a ploy to help the Old
Trafford club in their attempt to prise Marouane Fellaini from Everton,
despite the subsequent promise to return in January.
The
complications arose because Herrera’s club Bilbao did not want to sell,
as they have a policy of signing only players of Basque descent and are
therefore loathe to lose any stars born in the region. Manchester United say they'll be back in for Herrera in January
Handout
They have shown that clearly in the past when fighting so hard
to keep Fernando Llorente and Javi Martinez - whose move to Bayern
Munich was described by the German club as “the most difficult and
complicated” transfer they’ve ever done. And yet United gave themselves
barely half a day to do the deal.
Every Spanish player has a
formal release clause under La Liga rules, and usually, when a buying
club offers the amount set, they simply strike a deal with the player’s
club and pay the amount.
When a club doesn’t want to sell though,
the player himself is technically obliged to deposit the clause sum with
the league - and Bilbao took that stance before the window closed. It
got worse though, because under those circumstances, the fee can be
subject to an extra 20 per cent VAT bill, and even leave the player
himself with a 50 per cent tax bill.
As the deadline approached
and with United suddenly very nervous about the potential extra fee, the
player’s agents and United’s intermediary sent sports law experts from
the Bilboa legal firm Laffer Abagadosa to league headquarters in a
desperate attempt to clarify the situation.
United had first
offered a fee of around £25m plus an additional £5m if the midfielder
hit a set target of goals, but that was rejected out of hand. Then they
were led to believe they had a month under league rules to resolve the
legal situation and pay the buy out clause.
But when the three
lawyers - identified as Guillermo Gutierrez, Alvaro Reig and Rodrigo
Garcia - travelled to Madrid and spoke at 7-30pm with league
representatives, they discovered the one month’s grace period before the
money had to be stumped up applied only to transfers between Spanish
clubs.
They also found they needed power of attorney from Herrera,
and advised United there was no way at that stage La Liga officials
could guarantee there would be no extra costs added onto the deal. David Moyes has missed out on several transfer targets this summer
John Peters
It was at the stage, close to 10pm - just as the player’s
agent authorised a power of attorney - that United dramatically pulled
the plug, as they lost their nerve with the deadline ticking down, the
banks closed and the potential for extra costs. Even a club like United
can not simply write a cheque for a figure of £30m.
The player was
understandably devastated after being promised by United they WOULD
meet the buy out clause, and even agreeing a five year contract worth
around £65,000 a week, even though that meant taking a pay cut, given
the tax advantages offered in Bilbao to Basque natives.
But it is
understood United have now assured Herrera that they will return in
January with a fresh offer to Athletic Bilbao, which offers sufficient
time to take legal instruction which would clear any tax implications to
the deal.
The farcical situation though, serves only to further
add to the perception that United simply didn’t do their homework in the
window, and were thrashing around wildly as they left it far too late
to complete their business.
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