体坛英语新闻：Perez attempts to explain De Gea fiasco

MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid president Florentino Perez on Thursday night attempted to give his version of events following the failed attempt by the club to buy Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.

Real Madrid failed to present the adequate paperwork for the deal to be made official and such has been the criticism aimed at Perez that he was forced to give his side events: which differs significantly from that of Manchester United, who insist they fulfilled their part of the deal, on radio station Cadena Ser.

Perez insisted that Real Madrid had sent the contracts for De Gea "at 1:30 PM and Manchester United waited eight hours to return them. For us the documents entered in at 00:02...we don't understand why it took eight hours to return the contracts," said Perez, who insisted that Manchester United had only been willing to negotiate on Monday.

"We couldn't negotiate with United before Monday because the message from them was that De Gea was not for sale," said Perez, despite insisting that his club had known De Gea was the right replacement for Iker Casillas "...a year ago."

"I know De Gea was very affected because he really wanted to come. On Monday, when Utd told us they would negotiate, we tried for the player because we couldn't leave him there," said the Real Madrid President, who added "I think Man Utd lack experience with these things."

Perez also praised Keylor Navas, who could have gone to Manchester as part of the deal, but was unwilling to say whether his club would try to sign De Gea in January if he decided against signing a new contract in Manchester.