Racing Santander central defender Ezequiel Garay (21), who signed for Real Madrid this week, admitted in an interview with Madrid sports tabloid Marca that he was close to joining Barcelona a few months ago: "With Barcelona everything was agreed upon. But then the deal collapsed for reasons I'm not aware of."
A few days before this blog started in the beginning of February, Racing Santander president Francisco Pernía said that negotiations were being held and that it would highly surprise him if Garay wouldn't end up playing for Barcelona next season.
So what went wrong? A lot of possible reasons have been put forward over the last months. They can mainly be divided in two groups. An overview.
1. Economic reasons
Things seemed yo go wrong when the clubs had found on agreement and Garay's agents Fabián Basualdo and Ricardo Schlieper came in. The agents would have offered the player to other clubs, amongst which Manchester United and Real Madrid, apparently hoping to organize a bid race.
Barcelona, who was already hesitating about the transfer price of presumably 14 million euro° (plus 4 million euro° in incentives), did not want to enter the game and put everything on hold in the beginning of March.
Barcelona and Santander had agreed that the transfer fee would be paid in three slices over the year, but Barcelona didn't pay the first slice in April. Barcelona that way lost its option on Garay, the deal was definitely off and Santander offered the player to Real Madrid.
It was suggested that Barcelona didn't pay because of a cash problem. Madrid sports tabloid Marca claims that Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain had closed the deal but that Barcelona president Joan Laporta then refused to pay the 18 million euro°.
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Santander agreed to sell Garay to Real Madrid for only 10 million euro° because Madrid agreed pay the total amount immediately and Santander needs cash to make a few transfers in view of their participation in the Uefa Cup next season.
2. Technical reasons
Catalan sports paper Sport claimed in March that Rijkaard had vetoed the exit of Rafael Márquez (29), the player Garay should have been replacing. El Mundo Deportivo analyst Òscar Garcia had already labelled Garay "the new Marquez" because of the ressemblances in their playing style.
Catalan sports paper Sport claimed this week that the Barcelona tecnical department preferred Gerard Piqué (21) and gave up on Garay a few weeks ago when the negotiation on the transfer of the Catalan went in the right way. And because Márquez now seems to be staying, another central defender is not a priority anymore.
Piqué was chosen over Garay because the first is more polyvalent (also being able to play as right back defender and defensive midfielder), because he has a better pass and an contribute more in the built-up, because he is cheaper and because he knows the club. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claimed that the last scouting reports on Garay were not convincing.
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