Real Madrid Transfer News: David De Gea 100% Staying at Manchester United

David De Gea will not become a Real Madrid player this summer after reports revealed there is no chance of a transfer being revived from Manchester United.

Spanish football expert Guillem Balague confirmed the prospect of a move is now completely gone:

De Gea seemed all set to complete his move from Old Trafford on Monday when the two clubs agreed a £29 million fee and the transfer of Keylor Navas from Madrid to United, per Simon Stone of BBC Sport. But as noted in the aforementioned piece, delays submitting the paperwork meant the deadline passed without all the necessary duties being fulfilled.

Real Madrid released a statement on their official website in which they laid blame for the transfer stalling on United:

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Manchester United did not agree to open any negotiations over the federative rights of David de Gea until yesterday morning.

Real Madrid, despite the difficulties entailed in carrying out a deal of these characteristics on the final day of registration, agreed to initiate these talks.

[...] Real Madrid, having obtained the signatures of the players De Gea and Keylor Navas, sent the British club the aforementioned signed contracts at 23:32 Spanish time, before waiting to receive the final documents signed by Manchester United.

Manchester United reached a final agreement with the representatives of Keylor Navas at 23:53 Spanish time, and it is at this point that the contracts were sent to the player to be signed.

Manchester United entered the details of the David de Gea deal, not those of Keylor Navas, at 00:00 Spanish time, simultaneously sending Real Madrid the signed transfer contracts. Real Madrid received this complete documentation at 00:02 and attempted to access TMS, but it was now closed. 

At 00:26 Spanish time, FIFA's TMS invited Real Madrid to fill out the details of the player David de Gea, as the period of registration in England remains open until today. Real Madrid, in view of the possible eventuality of an administrative dispute over the player's transfer, decided to send the contracts to the Liga de Futbol Profesional, despite the knowledge that the deadline had passed.

In short, Real Madrid did everything necessary at all times to complete both transfers.

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However, United released a statement of their own, saying they never initiated talks with Madrid, and that Los Blancos didn't contact them with an offer for the goalkeeper until lunchtime yesterday:

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• In the last several hours of the process, with Navas at the Real Madrid training ground, Real Madrid were controlling the documentation processes of David, Navas and Real Madrid. Manchester United was in control only of the documentation of Manchester United.

• Manchester United sent transfer documents for both players to Real Madrid at 2042 BST. David’s documentation was returned by Real Madrid to Manchester United without the signatory page at 2232 BST.

• At 22:40 BST, minutes before the deadline, major changes to the documentation came through to Manchester United which immediately put the deals at risk. • Only at 2255 BST were the documents that are needed to cancel David’s contract received by Manchester United from Real Madrid.

• At this point Navas’ documentation was still not returned by Real Madrid.

• At 2258 BST, the transfer agreement was sent back by Manchester United, uploaded onto TMS and accepted – all before the deadline.

• It is our understanding that the deals couldn’t happen because:

- Real Madrid didn’t upload David’s documents onto TMS in time (Manchester United did)

- Real Madrid didn’t upload David’s documents to the Spanish league in time, per reports it seems some 28 minutes after the deadline

• The fact that Manchester United filed the papers on time was acknowledged by the Football Association, who offered to support that claim in any discussions with FIFA. The Club offered this assistance, as well as its own timestamped documents to Real Madrid but they have chosen not to go down this route.

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The result is that De Gea has been left “distraught” about the move collapsing, per AS English. He will also have to return to United after getting so close to his dream move. Mark Ogden of the Daily Telegraph doesn’t think the club will be too fussed that the transfer didn’t go through:

However, it’ll be embarrassing for the player having to head back to Carrington for training after this saga. De Gea has not featured in any matches for United as it is this season, and this awkward situation is unlikely to create a placid atmosphere.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

From Real's perspective, the failure of this deal is also likely to conjure an unsettling atmosphere. After all, Navas has been in excellent form throughout the early parts of the season, and it'll be interesting to see how he fares after he was proposed as a makeweight in a potential transfer for De Gea.

The Spanish international will most likely become a Madrid player eventually, whether this January or next summer. But the failure of this transfer is to the detriment of all parties, and given this was a saga that ran throughout the entirety of the summer, it's difficult to feel any sympathy for those involved.

Going forward, clubs of the stature of Real Madrid and United should be getting deals done well in advance of the deadline.