Flamengo chief Marcos Braz has explained why his club have not yet gone through with a deal to purchase Manchester United outcast Andreas Pereira.
The midfielder has been on loan in native Brazil since August, his fourth temporary switch away from Old Trafford since breaking into the United first team. The 26-year-old has amassed 75 senior appearances for his parent club since 2015 but has not featured for the side since June 2020.
Flamengo were on the verge of agreeing a £6.5m transfer for Pereira at the start of the year. But despite United’s request for club officials to travel to Manchester for discussions being met, no deal was confirmed.
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This in part was because of a big on-field mistake Pereira made in November in the club’s 2-1 loss to Palmeiras in the Conmebol Libertadores final, Braz said. The player lost the ball that led to the winning goal in extra time.
In the following weeks, club officials then expressed their concerns over a permanent transfer, which has subsequently led to the finalisation of the deal stalling. However, Braz says he isn’t panicking over getting the transfer over the line with several months of his loan left.
Speaking to Spotv (via ESPN), he said: “Andreas, in fact, had a fatality in the very important game and that was a weight in the process. The biggest reason we went to talk to Manchester was that when we made the first proposal, Manchester politely asked us to go there and deal with the matter, they didn’t want to stay by email.
“We respect. We took the plane and went there.” One of Brazil’s largest financiers, the Central Bank, froze its payments to other banks in March after workers held a strike. This also factored into the delay in a Pereira deal.
Braz added: ”In the midst of that, there was even the situation of the Central Bank. We are calm, even because the player has a contract until July 30, we are using the time to make decisions with caution.
“We have to respect the pressure of the crowd, but in some situations we have to be cold in the process to make decisions, as has always been done here. We have the player with a contract in place for a long time.”
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