Ben Guest
Gilberto Silva has revealed that Shakhtar Donetsk prevented midfielder Fred from joining Manchester City back in January.
While Silva is of course an Arsenal legend, these days he is now a football agent, with one of his clients being his fellow compatriot Fred, with the Brazilian making the £52 million move to Manchester United earlier this summer.
However, back in January, he was heavily linked with a move to Manchester City, but Silva has revealed that while the Citizens were willing to pay more than what United ended up paying, the move was a non-starter with Shakhtar refusing to sell their ‘most important player’:
“About Manchester City, he had the chance to leave in January,” Gilberto told UOL.
“But Shakhtar vetoed, there was no conversation. A good offer arrived, even bigger than the one from now. But Shakhtar understood that he was the most important player of the club.
“They didn’t want to negotiate, vetoed the exit. We did the planning which was to leave in the summer and he bought the idea. Everything we talked about, he understood the process, bought the idea.
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“It was cool, because the conduct before Shakhtar within the negotiation was very correct. Professional conduct on our part and the part of him also, for not having lost his performance [after the failed move to Manchester City].
“It was a negotiation opportunity that was passing. We explained to him and we said the club would not let him go. We could fight, but I said we wanted to do it differently.”