United: Real Madrid were clumsy

Sergio Ramos has urged Spain team-mate David de Gea to remain professional in the aftermath of the freaky breakdown of his proposed move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

The deal, which included Real’s Costa Rica keeper Keylor Navas moving to United, broke down in surreal circumstances when the completed paperwork was not filed with the Spanish league (La Liga) until just after the midnight deadline.

“I don’t want to blame anyone but we don’t really understand whether they needed eight hours to review the contracts or if it was just that they wanted to wait until the last minute to negotiate”, Perez said.

Manchester United were never going to allow Real Madrid and Florentino Perez, their president, to run their mouth unopposed for too long.

“I hope that he starts playing again and is happy, and if he plays well we can bring him along, otherwise if he doesn’t play it will be very hard for him to come (to the Euros)”.

De Gea is now marooned at Manchester United, though the Red Devils have indicated the wish to reintegrate him into their side by including him in their Champions League group stage squad.

“Manchester United had all the papers but they took eight hours to return them”.

At 1:30pm, Manchester United already had all of the contracts.

When asked about De Gea’s reported concerns at being left out, a United spokesman told the Press Association: “Those reports are absolute rubbish, the team will always be picked exclusively on merit”.

“I don’t know what will happen to the player“, Perez said.”

And although Real have been chasing the goalkeeper for more than a year as a long-term replacement for Iker Casillas, Perez refused to confirm whether Los Blancos would move for de Gea in January. “I can’t speak about players that are not part of Real Madrid“.

“He seems the same as ever to me, calm and relaxed”, added Mata, who is on global duty with De Gea for Spain’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovakia on Saturday.