Real Madrid Furious With Manchester City's Conduct In Fernando Gago Transfer

Both the agent of Manchester City target Fernando Gago, and a Real Madrid director, have been critical of the conduct of Roberto Mancini's side during the winter transfer window.

Gago's representative, Marcello Lombilla, believes the City of Manchester club "used" his client in the way they dropped their interest in Gago in order to pursue in-demand Kenyan player McDonald Mariga, who eventually signed for Internazionale. Once Mariga's Inter deal was finalised, City then returned their attentions toward Gago.

"City used us," Lombilla fumed to Onda Cero. "This has never happened to me before."

"I don't want to talk about the figures that City were offering because they approached Madrid without even knowing there wasn't physically enough time to put something together."

Real Madrid director Jorge Valdano, meanwhile, was left unimpressed with City's unorganised approach to transfer matters.

Valdano told El Pais: "They had nothing prepared, not even one document signed."

"They had not reached an agreement with the player and they would have had to have done everything in 40 minutes."

Even though the club were close to selling Gago, Lombilla claims the midfielder has no qualms with Real, and will "continue to work hard".

"Despite the fact he went from being 'untransferable' to suddenly 'for sale', he will always continue to work hard," concluded the agent.