Him towelling up grannies is along the lines of what Caligula and Nero probably used to get up to.

On a serious note, it'll be interesting to see whether Moyes can keep them at the top. Things haven't looked too good, so far.

This is better than I thought:

http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/manchester-united-ander-herrera-and-the-impostors-picking-through

Predictably, other news organisations picked up on the 'impostors' line and it's now being reported both here and in Spain. It's certainly entertaining to think that some chancers turned up at the Spanish league offices and tried to blag their way through a deal worth tens of millions of pounds. It's entertaining, but probably highly inaccurate.

A little research shows the men, pictured above, work for Laffer Abogados. In fact it's easy to identify them from the company website as partners in the law firm. Laffer have offices in Bilbao, Madrid and Pamplona and work with associates in England and Germany on things like... sport law in Spain. Throughout their website there are references to their work in this field and their expertise on the subject. They've worked with German clubs before and sides from the Premier League, including Arsenal.

It's also backed up independently. Several sources in Spain, including Marca, state they were involved in the highly complicated Javi Martinez to Bayern Munich transfer and helped the German club overcome tax issues. That was a prolonged situation which in itself probably helps explain why one transfer was successful and one not. Even Manchester United can't fight time, off the pitch.

Bayern Munich were able to get help on the tax complexities of the situation and complete a deal over several weeks. Manchester United moved in with time running out and it looks like they didn't start rushing until it was too late, or had no intention of paying the asking price for the player at any stage.

Ben Smith of the BBC says Man Utd have missed out on Coentrao.

"Just had confirmation that Manchester United's attempts to pull off an 11th hour loan move for Real Madrid's Fabio Coentrao did indeed fail.

The first part of the paperwork was submitted to the Premier League before the 2300 BST deadline. That one page document contained a rough outline of the deal, the signature of the player and was signed off by both clubs.

"That then gave all parties an extra hour to complete the finer points of the deal. But no further attempt was made to push on with the deal and it is understood that Real Madrid backed away from the process when their attempt to recruit a replacement left back, Guilherme Siqueira from Granada, fell through because he in turn had been loaned out to Benfica."

Good news IMO. Think he's a good player.

Still think they got a very good player in Fellaini. They will do well IMO.

Dempsey of a signing IMO. Shines at a mid-table club where he's the main man. There's talk of him adding something different but don't think he's the calibre of player that one of the top sides in Europe should be looking at. But you'd think Moyes knows his potential better than anyone else so let's see.

I love the fact that they bid £28m for Baines+Fellaini, only to cave in and buy Fellaini for £27.5m when they ran out of time. Not so dominant anymore, eh?

Fellaini is a great player IMO. Huge presence on the pitch, he's everywhere and a menace to play against. Not really the creative fulcrum they need though.

Patters wrote:

Dempsey of a signing IMO. Shines at a mid-table club where he's the main man. There's talk of him adding something different but don't think he's the calibre of player that one of the top sides in Europe should be looking at. But you'd think Moyes knows his potential better than anyone else so let's see.

Moyes knows exactly what he's getting. Thats why he didn't take him when his buy out clause was active. He's an ok player, plugs a gap for United, stops them getting pilloried for making no signings but he's not top, top class.

qs! wrote:

Patters wrote:

Dempsey of a signing IMO. Shines at a mid-table club where he's the main man. There's talk of him adding something different but don't think he's the calibre of player that one of the top sides in Europe should be looking at. But you'd think Moyes knows his potential better than anyone else so let's see.

Moyes knows exactly what he's getting. Thats why he didn't take him when his buy out clause was active. He's an ok player, plugs a gap for United, stops them getting pilloried for making no signings but he's no Mesut fucking Ozil!!!

You're welcome.

Love how Madrid shafted both Spurs and Man U at the 11th hour while selling us Özil.

Fucking hell, forgot how much of a whiny little cunts man united fans are, the amount of moaning I have heard from them in the past 2 days is unbelievable, like it's their god given right to have every wc player. Loving that us signing Ozil has got under their skins. Hope we fucking stuff them this season.

They're trying to save face now by crowing that Fellaini only cost £23.5m as he forfeited £4m of a loyalty bonus.
They were mortified that they supposedly ended up paying an amount that exceeded his recently expired release clause.

An Article written by Sid Lowe about the Ander Herrera deal

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/03/ander-herrera-manchester-united

It shows how incompetent ManU have been through this window

I don't think that article covers it all. My understanding of Spanish buyout clauses is that they can only be activated by the player himself. It's not something a hired lawyer from another club can do for him. The clauses are carefully engineered precisely to avoid that. Herrera would have to go to the league offices and pay the €36 million himself. Since it is unlikely that he has that kind of money available, United would have to transfer it to his private account before he pays it to the La Liga intermediaries. Only in that case the Spanish government would consider the transaction from United to Herrera as income and tax him for it. I'm not sure exactly how much a top bracket earner pays is in Spain, but it's somewhere around 50%. So all of a sudden United aren't looking at €36 million any more - they're looking at something closer to €52 million for the deal to go through. Herrera is a good player, but he's not that good.

So basically they tried to hire gun contract lawyers at the last minute, who then said "sorry guys, this type of deal takes weeks."

Embarrassing for United that they then allegedly tried to claim the lawyers weren't even acting for them.

Klaus, do you have a link about that?

I know nothing about contract law, but I find it weird a situation would exist where money paid for a specific purpose like that would be double-taxed as personal income for Herrera, then business income for Bilbao (and thereby inflate the amount by nearly half).

You could compare it to when you get a bank cheque from a bonds agency for a house deposit or something - at least here, that cash doesn't go on your taxable income because it's in your hands for a couple of days, although perhaps that's because it's legally made out to the eventual recipient.