Red Devils will have to look elsewhere for a new creative spark in 2014.
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Manchester United’s hopes of signing long-standing Athletic Bilbao midfield player Ander Herrera have now all but ended after the Liga club’s president claimed that the player would not be sold when the winter transfer window finally opens once again for business for the year in January, according to reports in the Sunday Mirror.
The Premier League champions tried to sign Herrera during the recent summer window, only to fail to bring the former Spain Under-23 international to Old Trafford in the finals hours of transfer deadline day.
New United head coach David Moyes pulled out of a deal when the Basque club quoted the Scot a price of £36 million for Herrera, which is the value of creative midfield player’s current contract at the San Mames, which runs until June 30 2016.
However, it had been widely thought that the Red Devils would definitely return to Bilbao in the new year with an offer for the 24-year-old after the struggles that United have suffered in the centre of the park under their new manager since the start of the campaign.
That is, until Bilbao president Josu Urrutia stated that his star man would not be going anywhere at the turn of the year: “Ander has a contract until 2016 and the matter of whether he will leave is an issue that is now closed.”