[valo403]

Originally Posted by devo22

the impostor story is definitely not true ... more and more details now

basically the three guys weren't impostors, but Spain based lawyers that were hired by United and Herrera in order to push the deal through. Those lawyers helped Bayern sign Javi Martinez last year as well and have a very good reputation. Basically Herrera was waiting for the medical and the lawyers were waiting at the La Liga HQ for Uniteds money transfer.

Conflicting reports as to what happened then and what made the deal fall through. Bilbao say that it's Uniteds fault because the lawyers apparently had not the right permits to make the deal for United (I call BS on this one - they made the Martinez deal, why shouldn't they be allowed to do the same with Herrera?). More realistic reports out of Spain claim that Bilbao flatly refused to receive Uniteds money - which apparently is their right even if the buyout clause is met. Same happened to Bayern last year, but they had time to find a way to circumvent this obstacle by going to the Financial Council in Bilbao, which would benefit from the deal and therefore put pressure on Athletic to sell the player. After some weeks, Bilbao gave in and sold Martinez. Apparently they never intended to sell Herrera yesterday and they knew that United would not have time to go to the Financial Council.

Bottom line: Spanish buyout clause rules stink and Bilbao are #######s. Herrera is extremely disappointed.

Doesn't that sort of make the buyout clause moot? Seems like an odd result.