Perez: Woodward to blame for De Gea deal collapse

Ed Woodward: Facing investor questions

Ed Woodward: Facing investor questions

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has hit out at the ‘inexperience’ of Manchester United executive vice-chairman Edward Woodward after blaming him for the collapse of the David de Gea deal.

United and Madrid agreed a £29million deal for De Gea on the final day of the summer transfer window but the transfer broke down at the last minute after the relevant documentation was received in Spain 28 minutes after the deadline.

That sequence of events led to both clubs issuing statements in which they claimed that the other club was at fault.

“I think they didn’t have bad intentions,” said Perez. “I think they just lacked experience. It already happened to us (two seasons ago) with Fabio Coentrao and also happened to Athletic Bilbao with Ander Herrera (the summer before the Spanish midfielder make the move when David Moyes was in charge).

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“When this happens more than once and you see that all the operations that, according to the media, they have tried to do during the summer (which didn’t go through) one believes that this happened because it is a new team with no experience.”

Perez was also strongly critical of the delays in Manchester United submitting the relevant documentation over the transfer and said: “It was a disgrace. I do not want to blame anyone but we do not understand why they took eight hours to check the contracts or that they didn´t open negotiations until 12 hours before the deadline.

“In half an hour we agreed everything. We sent them the paperwork at 1.30 and it took eight hours for them to return it. I do not think they did it with malice.

“They probably would be very busy but one thing that you can do in an hour takes eight (hours) for them. We, Real Madrid and Fifa have proof but we do not want to make it public.”