Nothing is ever simple, is it? Even when United buy a player, they can't just buy a player, oh no. They have to go and buy one whose messy ownership situation makes the Premier League all squirrelly, and ends up delaying his debut
Manchester United's defence is a mess. Marcos Rojo is, in theory, part of the solution to that mess. Yet he hasn't played for United yet and, if the Daily Mail's information is good, may not play this weekend against Burnley. It's not a work permit that's posing a problem, reckons the paper, but the player's complex ownership situation with his former club Sporting.
When Rojo was bought by Sporting from Spartak Moscow for £3.5m in 2012 Doyen are understood to have loaned the Portuguese club most of the money. In return the investment fund would receive 75 per cent of any future transfer fee or be repaid in full at a set interest rate — as with a lending bank.
It appears that Doyen haven't received a penny from Sporting, and despite reports suggesting that Sporting had refunded Doyen their initial stake, the Premier League are being ultra-cautious. The Mail is keen to stress that "United are not implicated in this in any shape," but apparently such delays are standard practice since the "Carlos Tevez affair." The signings of Liverpool's Lazar Markovic and Manchester City's Eliaquim Mangala, both from Portuguese clubs, were apparently similarly delayed.
Basically, Rojo may not play on Saturday and it's all Carlos Tevez's fault.