David de Gea's dream £29m move to Real Madrid is OFF amid claims Manchester United failed to submit paperwork

Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea believed that he had achieved his dream move to Madrid after the Spanish club broke the deadlock on Monday afternoon when they thrashed out a deal worth £29million.

Real goalkeeper Keylor Navas was also set to head to Old Trafford in part exchange. 

It only takes minutes to finalise a transfer… so what happened? 

Mark Goddard, general manager of FIFA’s Transfer Matching System told ESPN: ‘[Clubs] have to provide compulsory data, upload mandatory documents and declare all payments involved in a transfer. If all parties are organised, it takes between seven and 10 minutes.’

However, in a dramatic twist, De Gea was left shell-shocked as the transfer descended into farce as this summer’s most protracted transfer saga came to a shambolic conclusion:

• Sources close to Real Madrid accused United of failing to send the relevant documents to the LFP, the Spanish governing body, by the midnight deadline.

• United angrily refuted those claims, arguing that they had proof that their paperwork was sent on time and that they had logged the documents with a FIFA timestamp.

• However, staff at the Spanish LFP said that United filed the paperwork in a format that could not be opened.

• Both clubs wanted the move to go through and had considered appealing to FIFA on Tuesday.
• FIFA revealed on Tuesday afternoon that they hadn't received an appeal from Madrid.  

Sportsmail understands FIFA were waiting for the two clubs to file an appeal before launching an investigation into the transfer saga, but a representative from the organisation told Spanish radio station COPE that no request had been made before midday (CET) on Tuesday.  

De Gea, meanwhile, remained none the wiser as to how this shambolic episode would play out. He became increasingly pessimistic, though. De Gea is due to meet up with the Spanish national team at 9pm on Tuesday night in Madrid and he is still planning to be in attendance.

Interestingly, sources close to his agent Jorge Mendes have suggested that Navas may have been responsible for dragging the dealings out on Monday afternoon. 

DAVID DE GEA TRANSFER SAGA Q&A

Why did the transfer not happen?

Because Real Madrid failed to register David de Gea with the Spanish football League (LFP) before Spain’s midnight transfer deadline.

Were Manchester United in anyway to blame?

Their responsibility was to register the transfer with FIFA’s Transfer Matching System (TMS) which they did.

How does TMS work?

United would have logged in on Monday night, put their password in, and then filled out the on-screen form answering questions such as 'Are you the buying club or selling club?' 'Name of player?' 'Name of agent?' 'Fee?' Etc. At the same time Real Madrid should have been doing the same. If the two independent registrations of the deal match then both parties get a message: ‘This transfer has been registered with Fifa’.

And did this happen in time?

Madrid say they received paperwork at 11.59pm and that they have proof of this. In theory there is no exchange of paperwork so presumably they mean that at 11.59pm both clubs had registered the deal and FIFA had confirmed it. The transfer was done.

So if the transfer was done before the deadline time of the country of the buying club then surely De Gea is a Real Madrid player and Navas is a Manchester United player?

No, because Real Madrid then needed to register the player with the league and they did this at 12.28am – 28 minutes after deadline.

Can Real Madrid wangle this? Will the LFP not give them special dispensation?

Madrid are trying to claim that because they have proof that the transfer had taken place before midnight they have effectively met the deadline. 

But the rule is clear – the player must be registered with the league before midnight. The precedents say there will be no wriggle-room on this. Real Madrid tried to sign Guilherme Siqueira and sell Fabio Coentrao to Manchester United in September 2013 and the deal was not done in time.

And Levante tried to take Bryan Ruiz on loan from Fulham in January of this year but the paperwork arrived a minute after midnight at the LFP offices and so the deal never happened despite Levante’s attempts to get Fifa to over-rule the LFP.

What now?

We wait for the LFP to issue a statement. Either they will give in and bend their regulations or they will say ‘Sorry rules are rules’.

Could Keylor Navas in theory still go to United? After all the transfer was registered in time. And Navas didn’t need to be registered with the LFP?

Now you’re just being mischievous. And the answer is no. The two transfers would have been drafted in such a way that the failure of either club to properly register the player would make the deal null and void. So unless the LFP give in, it’s all off.

As Sportsmail reported, he was not desperate to join United and he only agreed to make the move once it was clear that he had no future at Real Madrid. His indecisiveness is said to have eaten into precious time.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that something has gone significantly wrong with the processing of the documents by Madrid or United, with the two clubs accusing one another. The blame game is afoot.

Spanish newspaper AS claimed on Tuesday morning that Real Madrid's documents hadn't been filed until 28 minutes after the deadline. 

De Gea, for his part, was said to be ‘devastated’ after he flew into Madrid to complete the transfer. The goalkeeper, who was staying with his girlfriend Edurne Garcia in the Spanish capital on Monday night, has agreed a six-year deal with Madrid and was due to be presented at the Bernabeu at lunchtime on Tuesday.

United's transfer policy was in chaos heading into transfer deadline day with Javier Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj both leaving on Monday while Louis van Gaal is gambling on Monaco teen Anthony Martial in a deal that could rise to £58m. James Wilson is also set to depart on loan on Tuesday. 

United are understood to have been anxious throughout the day that Madrid were too relaxed over the De Gea transfer after the Spanish side made only their first official offer on deadline day for La Liga.

De Gea’s powerful agent Mendes facilitated the negotiations as the two clubs brought an end to the posturing and, remarkably, held conducive talks for the very first time this summer.

The clubs finally thrashed out a deal on Monday afternoon when Madrid agreed to pay United £19m and allow Navas — valued at £10m — to head to Manchester as part of the deal. The total valuation of the deal was expressed as £29m by the two clubs.

De Gea, who joined United in 2011, was left dreading the prospect of having to return to Old Trafford until his contract expires next summer.

The Spaniard’s relationship with United manager Van Gaal and goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek is in tatters after the Dutchman Van Gaal accused De Gea of refusing to play for the club in the opening games of the Premier League season.

De Gea was left privately seething and he was also ordered to train with the reserves for much of the past three weeks and he was told that he would not be welcome to join the United squad at away games.

Many inside Carrington were bemused by the treatment of De Gea, who has always been regarded as an outstanding professional.

De Gea refused to rise to Van Gaal’s bait. He continued to do as the club requested, training daily and sitting in the stands at home games as Mendes assured him the deal would come to fruition.

De Gea’s patience seemed to have finally been rewarded only for his dream to turn into a nightmare as the clock struck midnight.