Fabio Coentrao appears to not be joining Manchester United, will stay at Real Madrid

Fabio Coentrao will not be joining Manchester United and will remain a Real Madrid player, according to several sources, as the papers were apparently sent over too late.

Several sources in Spain suggested Coentrao would not be joining us, before ESPN appeared to back them up. It's not as big a disaster as missing out on Ander Herrera, but Coentrao would've been an excellent option to have for several positions in the squad where we don't have a great amount of depth. Let's hope Patrice Evra continues his decent early form this season.

It really does sum up a window of spectacular incompetence and tight-fistedness from United, who have just made this season a whole lot more difficult for themselves.

This isn't completely confirmed and there are conflicting reports, but in short it now looks unlikely. We'll report back with a full debriefing in the morning, but we advise you lick your wounds for now.