Why did David De Gea's move from Manchester United to Real Madrid fall through?

It seemed a perfect solution.

Real Madrid thought they had wrapped up the signing of their long-term goalkeeping target, Manchester United had got around £25m for a player with one year left on his contract and David De Gea had extricated himself from an awkward situation with a manager who no longer trusted him.

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[STORY: De Gea deal collapses after transfer deadlock]

The deal was agreed. De Gea was heading to Madrid. And then it all collapsed.

It seems very unlikely that the Spanish league will be open to any appeal, even if Real Madrid believe they have a case. So unless something extraordinary happens, De Gea will see out the season with United.

But who is to blame for this turn of events? We took a look through the press to try and establish the guilty party, or parties as the blame game begins…

Reporter Duncan Castles, a man with close links to big football players like Jose Mourinho and Jorge Mendes, said United left Real Madrid with no time to complete the deal. “According to sources involved in the La Liga club's ill-fated attempt to acquire De Gea for €15 million plus Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas, United failed to send documentation essential for the Spanish football federation to conclude De Gea's transfer until four seconds after the RFEF's midnight cut off,” he writes. “The English Premier League club has denied this version of events, insisting its officials hold documentary evidence that the required paperwork was sent on time.

“Describing the outcome of Monday's transfer negotiations as ‘a disaster,’ ‘unbelievable,’ ‘horrible’ and ‘really catastrophic,’ De Gea's advisors were last night resigned to the Spain international remaining an Old Trafford employee into the final season of his contract. ‘Even to appeal is impossible,’ said one source when asked if Madrid intended to take the 24-year-old's case to FIFA.”

Madrid-based paper As reports that Real Madrid did not get the documents to the Spanish league until 00:28CET - almost 30 minutes after the deadline. Keylor Navas was due to go the other way but he helped hold the deal up. “The contracts, which had been signed by the player, did not arrive at the LFP headquarters in time to be processed so as it stands, Keylor Navas will continue at Real Madrid and De Gea with United. Sources at the LFP confirmed that the documents sent by Real Madrid arrived at 00:28 CEST.

“A total agreement between both clubs had been reached almost an hour earlier at 23:30. Real Madrid and Manchester United had agreed a 30 million euro fee for the transfer of David de Gea while Keylor would move in the opposite direction for 15 million. However, Keylor wanted to make modifications to his contract which meant that they were dispatched later than anticipated.”

United are pointing the finger at Real Madrid for taking so long to get the deal done when they had targeted De Gea all summer. Daniel Taylor writes in the Guardian: “United are adamant they prepared everything with time to spare and that the blame should not be apportioned in their direction. United have a time-stamp on the various faxes, filed through Fifa’s Transfer Matching System to validate it was not their fault and clearly think Real are culpable for waiting so long to arrange a transfer that has been in the offing for several months.

“Real, however, insist United are responsible and claim they received a vital fax at 11.59pm, leaving them with no time to submit it to the Liga de Fútbol Profesional. The document is understood to have been forwarded a minute past the deadline and, as such, De Gea was informed that the two clubs would have to abort the £29.3m player-plus-cash exchange involving Keylor Navas that had been agreed during the day.”

The front page of As leaves the reader in no doubt who to blame for Madrid’s failure to get De Gea.

Spanish radio station Cadena SER says Madrid are confident they received the necessary paperwork from United at 23:59 and will take the evidence to FIFA in an attempt to give the transfer the green light. As explains: “Madrid claim that it was physically impossible to send the LFP the correct documentation by the midnight deadline. They submitted the paperwork some time later.

“Today Madrid will make a claim to FIFA arguing that the paperwork was delivered on time given the circumstances and hope that they will overrule on the situation. The final word on the matter will be delivered by the organizers of the Spanish La Liga (LFP).”

And a slightly left-field and rather less robustly sourced claim, but a funny one...