Keylor Navas never actually boarded the plane to England and never really wanted to either but he could see it there waiting for him and, knowing he had little choice, he’d come to accept the idea of flying north. Deadline day had begun like any other but in the afternoon the phone started ringing and by his own admission it ended up being one of the worst days of his life. He was on a treatment table at Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground, visible from Barajas airport with its leaning floodlights, when he signed the papers that said he was joining Manchester United. There was no time for anything else: things were moving fast. Just not, in the end, fast enough.

Late on 31 August he got another call, the last in a long day. “So, can I go now?” Navas asked. Yes, came the reply, and so he switched off the phone and headed home. He later related the experience of what should have been his last day at the Santiago Bernabéu to Cadena Cope radio. He told them that it was then, when he finally got back, that he cried. Due to join up with Costa Rica he pulled out as he needed time to get his head round all this. A lot had happened after all. Just as importantly, after all that, a lot had not. David de Gea had not signed for Madrid and Keylor Navas had not signed for United. And all because of that fax machine.

It’s not really a fax machine, although “fax machine” has become a symbol of the transfer market: a useful visual shorthand for all the bureaucracy and a useful excuse too, an image of clubs and leagues literally waiting for the paperwork to come through, line by line, cogs whirring and bells pinging. What’s actually used is the international Transfer Matching System, FIFA’s automated online mechanism. Having agreed a deal the clubs log in, enter the details and, if they match, the transfer is confirmed. The process normally takes seven or eight minutes and once that’s done, registration with the league, which also imposes a deadline, can be formalised.

But midnight came on 31 August and there was no news from the Spanish league (LFP) where reporters were camped out. De Gea was not on their list of players to register. When the request finally arrived at the LFP from the Bernabéu it was almost half past midnight; it was also incomplete and Madrid knew that. They’d lobbed up a Hail Mary just in case, but they were aware that it almost certainly wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work. It turned out that they hadn’t only missed the LFP deadline, they had missed the TMS deadline too.

In his autobiography, the former Everton and Athletic Club manager Howard Kendall, who passed away last week, told the story of beating a deadline to sign Dave Watson even though he had actually missed it by turning back the Villa Park clock an hour, standing Watson in front of it and taking a photo which he then sent to the league. That was almost 30 years ago. With the TMS it’s different now, which is one of the reasons it exists. Try to access the system after the deadline and you won’t even get in, as Madrid found out at 00.02. United were in and completed their bit; Madrid were not and did not.

And so began the accusations and explanations. Many didn’t convince. Ay, fax machine! That very night, as everyone tried to work out what the hell had happened and there was a scramble to justify it all, there were wild theories, talk of documents sent in the wrong format, of emails not making it, documents going missing, signatory pages falling off and long silences. Over the next two days Madrid publicly blamed United and United blamed Madrid back. Through it all you wondered if maybe this wasn’t such a mistake at all, if things hadn’t changed somehow and minds had changed too; if it wasn’t something of a charade, a pantomime for public consumption. If someone, somewhere had been played. Or maybe we all had. A deal standing by all summer had been left to the last day and then they’d rushed – not quickly enough, but conveniently enough?

While they pointed the finger, the two goalkeepers were stuck in Madrid. De Gea was with the Spain squad at Las Rozas; Navas was at home. Their returns were going to be difficult, it was said. Instead their returns have been triumphant. Maybe not by design, maybe just because they got lucky, but things turned out nice again.

If United were always likely to be happy to keep De Gea, even if on the rebound, the same was not necessarily true of Madrid with Navas. They had reached an agreement with the United goalkeeper and were obliged to try to sign him, even if the price was creeping higher than they hoped for someone they could (back then) get next year for free. Besides, they’d identified him as their star for years to come: young, talented, Spain’s future No1, someone who would properly replace Iker Casillas, on the pitch and among the public. Even those who thought Navas was an excellent goalkeeper (and there were many of them), even those who thought Navas should have replaced Casillas already (and there were many of them too), had few doubts that De Gea was an upgrade.

One person who did doubt that was Navas himself. “I won’t sit in the corner, crying, waiting for people to give me things: things do not just fall from the sky,” he said. “Hard work is the basis of everything.”Videos of him training, released while he was at Levante, underline that and nothing has changed. The attention to detail is striking and so is the intensity; games are watched and analysed over and over, drills repeated endlessly. Forget his hands, although they’re good, it’s more about his legs: much of the focus is on movement and few goalkeepers are as quick. Few are quite so alert, either.

Real Madrid’s Keylor Navas in action against Levante. Photograph: Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid via Getty Images

Fewer still are as serious. Navas is extremely serious, almost disconcertingly so. Heroically, he even wears black boots. There’s a quiet, straight toughness to him, a conviction and clarity that brokers little argument, a competitive determination and belief that’s unwavering. His focus is such that even some team-mates find it a little intense, almost comic at times but beneficial too: a silent strength that helps to explain that what happened in the summer not only failed to sink him but actually appears to have empowered him. At the very least it afforded him the opportunity he should perhaps have been given before. Fortune favoured him; justice was done.

Fortune is something that he interprets through faith, reinforcing those convictions, that strength: Navas can barely give an answer without referencing God. “I thought: ‘let God decide’,” he said of that day when he was leaving one minute and staying the next, when he gazed at that plane, waiting for the word to climb on board only for the words to be “it’s off”, when he admitted that “many things” went though his head and at the end of which he cried. “I don’t want to go but, if I have to go, it is because that’s God’s will,” he recalled thinking. “And in the end God didn’t want me to go. God gave me the opportunity and I don’t want to waste it.”

He hasn’t. De Gea might have been as good, who knows?, and Manchester United fans are rightly happy too, but the Costa Rican has been astonishing. Keylor Navas? Keylor Paras, they call him in the Madrid dressing room. It’s not the most imaginative nickname but its meaning matters: Keylor Stops. Keylor stops, alright. Keylor stops pretty much everything, in fact.

Navas has conceded only three goals in nine league games, 12 games in total. No goalkeeper has conceded fewer in Spain and it is not because he is not facing any shots. In fac, he has faced 113 of them. As the sports daily AS notes, that’s more than any goalkeeper at any team at the top of Europe’s big five leagues. Neuer (66), Hart (69), Trapp (80) and Szczesny (88) have faced fewer and they have made fewer saves too. Nor is it just absolute numbers: Navas has saved more than 90% of the shots he has faced this season, a higher percentage than anyone else, and some of the saves have been superb. Many have been decisive as well. He has saved two penalties and gave Madrid points against Granada, Málaga and Athletic. A superb stop in the last minute prevented Atlético winning the Madrid derby.

This weekend he did it again when the only two unbeaten teams in Spain met at Balaídos: Real Madrid and Celta Vigo. Celta, arguably the league’s outstanding team this season, had destroyed Barcelona 4-1 there. Three days after Madrid played in Paris, with James Rodríguez, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema out injured, with recent performances not entirely convincing, with Rafa Benítez all defensive about tiresome, relentless accusations that he is all defensive, this was a huge test for Madrid. A proper gauge of where they are. It was, in short, huge.

For the opening 15 minutes or so Madrid passed that test, moving the ball quickly and pressuring high. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the first after eight minutes and Danilo got the second after 22. By then Celta had already begun to react and so had Navas. With every passing minute it felt like he made another save, each more difficult than the last: he stopped Orellana, Jonny, Wass, Hernández and Aspas, all inside the first half. “Miraculous”, cheered Marca, turning all martial: “Navas does not save shots, he flies: he stopped a bullet from Orellana, a shot at point-blank range from Aspas, a missile from Hernández.”

It took until the second half for him to be beaten and it took Nolito, who was absolutely sensational in the last half an hour, to do so: first he got the ball past Navas only to see Marcelo clear it off the line and then he thumped a superb shot into the top corner. There were six minutes to go when that went in and Celta had been the better side despite going down to 10 men on 56 minutes. More so in fact than before. Now, they really believed they could equalise and so they pushed still more. But as they pushed Marcelo caught them on the break in the 95th minute, producing a lovely feint to leave goalkeeper Sergio on the floor and make it 3-1.

At the final whistle, the shot count read 17-14. “It’s down to Keylor,” Nolito said, “he made three or four saves [so good] that I have no idea how he made them.” “He’s having a great season and he stopped us various times,” Hernández added. “The difference between the teams? Their goalkeeper,” agreed their manager, Toto Berizzo. Asked if Navas had been Madrid’s best player Benítez said that the team had been the best player, which is pretty much what he is obliged to say. Highlighting a goalkeeper’s strength highlights others’ weaknesses. But others, including those others, had fewer doubts. “His level is spectacular”, said Lucas Vázquez. “Keylor’s on very good form,” said Casemiro. Watching at home, Rodríguez described him as “incredible.” Emilio Butragueño described him as “sensational,” his saves as “miraculous.”

Significant too. “Más líder,” said the cover of AS. More of a leader. Celta had been left three points behind and at Balaídos too. “Important teams have lost here and we were facing a team that was euphoric; we’re very satisfied,” Benítez said. At the final whistle Madrid’s players, exhausted but top of the table, embraced each other. Meanwhile, back at the Bernabéu, someone in an office somewhere embraced the fax machine and whispered: “Thanks.”

Results and talking points: Rayo Vallecano 3-0 Espanyol, Celta Vigo 1-3 Real Madrid, Granada 1-1 Betis, Sevilla 5-0 Getafe, Málaga 2-0 Deportivo, Levante 0-4 Real Sociedad, Las Palmas 0-0 Villarreal, Barcelona 3-1 Eibar, Atlético 2-1 Valencia. Tonight: Athletic-Sporting

• Luis Suárez celebrated a year since his debut for Barcelona with a hat-trick in a 3-1 defeat of Eibar blat the Camp Nou. His contribution was vital too: Barcelona had gone 1-0 down and Eibar, pressuring higher up the pitch, probably deserved more. The first goal was offside too, Sandro beyond the last man when he provided the clever volleyed assist. “What Luis gives us is priceless,” said Luis Enrique afterwards. “He’s indispensable for us. And if on top of all the other things he does he scores goals too, then chapeau!”. That’s 57 games, four trophies, 25 assists and 35 goals in a year, including two in Manchester and two in Paris, the winner in the clásico and in the European Cup final in Berlin. Commentating on the game for Cadena Ser radio, the original Luis Suárez, the only Spaniard to win the Balon D’Or, exclaimed: “there’s a reason he’s called Luis Suárez!”

(It’s not just goals he has brought. In case you missed it, he also bought Leo Messi these pyjamas)

Luis Suárez celebrates completing his hat-trick for Barcelona against Eibar Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

• Barcelona’s problems are not over, though. They had Javier Mascherano sent off for shouting “your mother’s shell” at the linesman – “shell” being Argentinian slang for a particular female body part. He could yet get a four-match ban which would see him miss the clásico. Only, it turns out that he actually said “your sister’s shell” which, incredibly, might make a difference, as Barcelona could claim that it means that the referee’s report is flawed and mistaken. It could be serious for them but for everyone else it was a bit of a laugh, leading to the (rather prolonged) childish giggle of the day as newspapers, radios and TV channels went on and on and on about it all night, no beeps and no censorship, no coyness and none of those cowardly and frankly pointless stars that this column is about to use, as they discussed the episode and argued, quite vociferously, over which phrase he actually used and how best to translate it into Spanish Spanish. Imagine watching the BBC and listening as they debated for hours whether Wayne Rooney had called the referee a t*** or a c*** and you’re more or less there.

• “Have you come for the funeral?” asked the reporter from San Sebastián sitting up in the stand at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium. It turned out there was a funeral, too, just not that funeral. David Moyes has been under pressure and the rumours were relentless, even though he has no intention of leaving, but Real Sociedad beat Levante 4-0 on Sunday morning to leave fans thinking that maybe, just maybe, there is something building there after all. “It wasn’t our best performance of the season,” Moyes insisted and he was probably right too: they have played as well before and got nothing.

Two from Carlos Vela, his first goals this season, the first made by a really wonderful pass from Agirretxe, and one each for Agirretxe and Illaramendi (although some papers gave it to Chori Castro) took la Real up to 14th place and leave Levante bottom. And so it was that there was a funeral, but not Moyes’s. A year after joining the club, the Levante manager Lucas Alcaraz headed quietly along the corridor under the main stand, shook Moyes’s hand, shook the hand of the bloke next to him, said “congratulations” and left the stadium for the last time. A few hours later the board agreed to sack him but they couldn’t get hold of him by phone to tell him, so they sent an email instead.

• The most surprising thing about Atlético 2-1 Valencia was that Valencia were ever in a position where they might get something from the game. They had only one shot on target all night and that was a penalty they were gifted out of nowhere. Atlético were far, far the better side, with Jackson getting the first and Carrasco scoring a superb second. Atlético are third, just two points off the top. And that’s despite having already faced Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal.

• “Before anyone asks, the [three] penalties are because we are in their area,” Unai Emery said after his team’s 5-0 win over Getafe, in which they scored three times from the spot and Kevin Gameiro got a hat-trick (only one of which was a penalty). Amen, brother.

• Málaga won 2-0 with goals from Tighadouni and Juankar, which is pretty much what opponents Deportivo thought.

• One of the most depressing things about the story about the unnamed linesman who alleged that he had been pressured to favour Real Madrid in the clásico was the way the reaction to it was so predictable – conditioned, as ever, by club colours. All too easily dismissed in Madrid, all too easily believed in Barcelona. Some of the judgments and assumptions made about it, some of the conclusions reached by the media and supporters, have been daft. And, most sadly of all, so many of them have been prejudiced … in the most literal sense of the word. The worst damage may already be done but more damage is following it.

Since the original ‘denuncia’ was made, nothing much has happened, except that the lawyer who lodged the complaint has done rather a lot of interviews. And in all of them he has admitted that there is little real evidence. Even the complaint itself carries little weight for as long as no one knows who it is actually from. Much has been made of that anonymity and also of the fact that the officiating team have not even been named yet, even though that does not necessarily make a lie of the claim, despite many insisting that. If someone who can designate the referees was trying to fix a game, any game, sounding out officials now might, actually, be a logical part of the vetting/decision-making process. But there are certainly elements of the denuncia that do not convince, and that is indeed one of them.

There are still loads of questions, pending an investigation that it is not clear will even take place, not least as there may not even be the basis for one. Questions like: Why has the RFEF said nothing? Why hasn’t the referees’ committee said anything? Why hasn’t Jiménez Muñoz, who is reported as being the referees’ committee member accused of having made the telephone call to the linesman (not since the first night, anyway)? Why haven’t Madrid? Most important of all, when it comes to speaking out, why won’t the linesman who made the accusations reveal himself? In fact, is there even a linesman? Couldn’t the lawyer have made this ‘denuncia’ without there even being a real complaint behind it? But wouldn’t a lawyer know how serious it was to do so? (Or would a lawyer, by contrast, actually know that it’s no big deal?). Who gains from this, if anyone? Why should corruption reach football? Why shouldn’t it, when it is so prevalent in other spheres? Is it really so easy to fix a game, anyway?

Above all the question is: what now? The answer, at a guess, is: nothing.