• Spanish club rule out appeal over failed transfers of De Gea and Navas • Spanish league says paperwork was not sent in time and Real blame United

Real Madrid have sought to lay the blame for their failure to sign David de Gea with Manchester United, insisting that they did “everything” they could to complete the £29.3m deal in which De Gea was due to head for the Santiago Bernabéu with Keylor Navas going to Old Trafford. Real accused the English club of taking eight hours to make minor modifications to the agreement.

Madrid have suggested that small changes requested by Navas helped to slow down the completion of the move which they were unable to register before the midnight deadline, although doubts remain about their version of events and what really happened.

On Monday night Madrid briefed that they were considering an appeal but there was no mention of that by the time they released a statement on Tuesday afternoon. Indeed while the statement made no mention of an appeal at all, its content made it clear that the Spanish club know that there would be no grounds for one. The transfer simply went uncompleted. De Gea will stay at United. The Spanish league has no intention of making a public statement but had already briefed that it would not be flexible: Madrid missed the deadline.

Madrid said that was United’s fault and perhaps the key aim of the Spanish club’s statement was to apportion blame as well as explain what had happened, yet a number of key questions remain unanswered – including the true intentions of those involved on both sides.

Real confirmed that the deal had been agreed by both clubs and signed off by the two goalkeepers but their statement admitted that not only did they fail to register De Gea with the Spanish league, the LFP, they had also been unable to complete the transfer through Fifa’s transfer matching system, TMS.

Clubs must receive confirmation through the TMS, a mechanism in which both clubs insert the information simultaneously, before registering players with the league. Registering De Gea with the LFP was Madrid’s responsibility, not United’s. In any case, failing to complete the TMS transfer on time meant that any attempt to register with the league would not be valid.

By the time Madrid sent the documentation to the LFP at 00.28 they had still not completed the transfer via TMS and knew that the deadline had passed. The deal was already dead. Sources at the league had suggested that not only did the paperwork not arrive in time, there had been no prior communication with Madrid requesting flexibility or patience.

On Monday night, as it emerged that the deal had not been completed, stories from the Bernabéu emerged swiftly claiming that Madrid had been unable to open documents sent to them by Manchester United – a club with whom they had successfully done business late in the window last year, when Ángel Di María moved to Old Trafford.

Madrid said they could prove that the agreement was in place at 23.59. By the time a formal statement was made almost 12 hours later, those suggestions were absent. Madrid did, though, attribute the deal’s breakdown to United. United have made no comment thus far.

Madrid have. In a 10-point statement, Madrid insisted that United had not agreed to open a “channel of negotiation” for the transfer until Monday afternoon. Whether it was up to United to open up that communication or negotiation is doubtful, however: in theory, it was Madrid, the buying club, who would need to do so.

It is also implausible to suggest that a deal this size had not been discussed at any point over the summer, even if via third parties. De Gea is represented by Jorge Mendes. He has spent much of the summer in regular contact with United and with Madrid.

Madrid said United insisted that any negotiation on De Gea was dependent on them signing Navas and that “they were in contact with [Navas’s] representatives”. The Costa Rican goalkeeper had remained in Madrid to resolve his future, rather than heading off on international duty.

Madrid said that an agreement had been reached and that the contracts had been drawn up swiftly, precisely in order to give them time to close the deal, and that they had been sent to United at 13.39, Spanish time. According to Madrid, these were not returned until 21.43, over eight hours later.

No explanation has been given for this long and striking delay, which Madrid’s statement portrays as decisive but which would still have allowed ample time for the deal to be done. Madrid described the amendments suggested by United as “insignificant”; they were immediately accepted. Madrid say they had the contracts signed by Navas and De Gea and sent back at 23.32, almost two hours later.

This delay, if it is to be considered a delay, is not explained either. There were now just 28 minutes remaining. Madrid’s version of events then has Navas, who they say had signed the deal at 23.32, finally reaching personal terms with United at 23.53.

At this point, Madrid say United inserted the details of De Gea’s transfer (but not Navas’s) into the TMS. It was 00.00 Spanish time, right on deadline. They say that they received the “completed documentation” at 00.02, although it is not entirely clear what documentation they refer to, and then tried to access the automated system at 00.02. By then, they say, the deadline had passed and they were unable to access the TMS.

The explanation here is unclear as the TMS mechanism does not require the clubs to wait for each other: they had no need to wait for United, as they implied they had done. In waiting, they missed their opportunity, if they had not already missed it. The deadline had passed to register De Gea with the league and they had missed the necessary previous step too, failing to confirm the transfer through Fifa’s TMS.

Madrid’s statement then says that they were “invited” by the automated system to complete De Gea’s details at 00.26 “given that the registration period in England is open until today [Monday]” but this too raises doubts, not least that they sought to register De Gea in the Spanish market, not the English one. And in any case, it was unsuccessful.

Although they log all activity, Fifa does not comment on the TMS, neither confirming nor denying that it has been accessed, considering it a matter between clubs. But, put bluntly, those who are familiar with TMS say that Real’s explanation does not ring entirely true: the same automated remote system, accessible to clubs, that would not let Madrid in at 00.20 now invited them to enter data at 00.26?

Madrid do not say if they did so. Their statement says only that, knowing there might be a challenge to the transfer, they sent “documentation” to the league just after, “even though [we] knew the deadline had passed”.

De Gea was described as being “distraught” about the late twist to a remarkable Monday in which United moved out Adnan Januzaj and Javier Hernández and made Monaco’s Anthony Martial the most expensive teenager in world football at £36m.

Real Madrid statement

After what happened yesterday in relation to the attempted signing of David De Gea, Real Madrid want to clarify:

1 Manchester United did not open any channel of negotiation for ... De Gea until yesterday morning.

2 Despite the difficulties involved in completing an operation of this nature on the last day of registration, Madrid agreed to open those conversations.

3 When Manchester United opened that channel of negotiation yesterday morning, they did so as long as it included reaching an agreement for the Real Madrid player Keylor Navas so that he could join the British club this season, and they informed [us] that they were in contact with the player’s representatives.

4 Real Madrid and Manchester United quickly reached an agreement on the transfer of both players. After the corresponding necessary contractual documents were drawn up and with the aim of progressing with sufficient time to complete the Fifa TMS and his [De Gea’s] registration with the LFP, Real Madrid sent the contracts to Manchester United at 13.39, Spanish time.

5 Manchester United handed over their comments [amendments] to the aforementioned contracts eight hours later, at 21.43 Spanish time, including some small modifications. As they were not significant they were immediately accepted by Real Madrid, with the intention of registering him in time both in the TMS and at the LFP.

6 Having got the signatures of De Gea and Keylor Navas, Real Madrid sent the English club the contracts, signed, at 23.32 Spanish time, and [then] waited to receive the final contracts back from them, signed by Manchester United.

7 Manchester United reached a final agreement with Navas’s representatives at 23:53 Spanish time and it was at that time when the contracts were given to the player for him to sign.

8 Manchester United put the details of the David De Gea transfer, [but] not the Keylor Navas transfer, into the TMS at 00.00 Spanish time, while Real Madrid simultaneously delivered the signed transfer contracts/agreements. Real Madrid received the complete documentation at 00.02 and tried to access the TMS but that was already closed.

9 At 00.26 Spanish time, the TMS automated system invited Real Madrid to complete the details of David De Gea, given that the registration period in England is open until today. In the face of the possibility of a conflict regarding the player’s transfer Real Madrid decided to deliver the contracts to the LFP, even though it knew that the deadline had passed.

10 Thus, Real Madrid has done everything necessary, at all times, to complete the two transfers.