Hirving Lozano moving from Pachuca to Manchester United has been like a little box of fireworks over the past few days. New things popping up every now and again and burning brightly, disappearing, then being replaced by a new bright claim.
In all honesty, when it started last week, we had our doubts, and that was because it all seemed rather weird.
Our Lucas Sposito started things off and this is what he reported on Friday: ‘This evening, three articles caught our attention. One of them is from Futbol Entre Lineas, which says that the deal is almost done and Lozano’s family would be ready to move to England.
According to their story, his father-in-law called some relatives in London and asked how to open a bank account there. When questioned why, he would have said “it’s because my daughter is going to live there”.
Then he was reportedly asked how the negotiations were going and said: “Yeah, it’s all done, there are a few details left and after the Olympics it will be made official.”
Futbol Entre Lineas doesn’t seem the most reliable website in America. Next to the article, there’s an advert calling people to write for them for free so they make their name by being part of this community.
Then there are two websites who were supposed to be reporting the news. Futbol Total’s URL said “Hirving Lozano will be a Manchester United player”, but the article was removed.
The TV channel Univision also has a URL saying “Hirving Lozano would have reached a deal with Manchester United”, but their page keeps loading and nothing happens.’
The removing of articles just seemed plain weird. There are all kinds of nonsense transfer rumours articles probably taking up an obscene percentage of the internet as a whole, but they’re not deleted.
Had there been threats of legal action? Were the media outlets suddenly aware the story was ridiculous and deleted everything in painful embarrassment? There was no way to know.
But then things took a turn for the credible. ESPN interviewed Andres Fassi, presented as Pachuca president, and he said: “Is there already a negotiation with that team? Yes. There is still nothing done.”
Following that, Hirving Lozano himself spoke to with ESTO in Mexico, who described him as ‘smiling from ear to ear’ at the mention of a move to Manchester United.
He was quoted as saying: “It’s good that teams like those are looking at me and I think I need to keep doing things well, so that teams come watch me do it at international level.
“Of course the thought of playing for Manchester United excites me, and I need to give it my all (for it to become reality)”.
He also had lovely things to say about José Mourinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic: “He’s a great manager and the other is one of the best strikers in the world, but first I need to talk with Pachuca and then we’ll see.”
Next up was ESPN’s Heriberto Murrieta who said on Monday evening that Pachuca’s Jesus Martinez had confirmed to him that Hirving Lozano to Manchester United is ‘puro rollo’, which would mean he thinks it’s rumours.
But, hang on, isn’t Fassi in charge? That’s what the same ESPN had claimed.
A little digging around Pachuca’s very hard to use website states Fassi is the vice president and Martinez the president. So not only disagreement at ESPN, but at Pachuca also.
To make things even more complicated, Mexico’s Tiempo say Fassi told ESPN, presumably on Monday night UK time: “The talks have made progress, although there is still nothing definite.”
And ESPN themselves had an article on the competition Lozano would face at Old Trafford, starting it off by saying: ‘Mexican striker Hirving Lozano would be very close to finalising his move to Manchester United.’
What has confused matters even further is The Sun reporting on the potential transfer, and then half the Mexican media taking their claims to be gospel, without a hint of sarcasm.
Given that this has all turned into an absolute mess, we dug a little further.
Last month Fassi also claimed an approach from Manchester United for Lozano, leading the player to say: “I believe I have to take it calmly, I wasn’t told anything about it, I need to first focus on the Tri (National Team), finish this tournament well and then see what happens, but nobody told me anything so far.”
Then, around June 7th, there were claims from Vladimir García, a journalist for Fox Sports in Mexico, that Manchester United had already made a bid for the young forward, which was rejected.
Pachuca wanted more money.
Going back to August 2012, Pachuca were getting ready to sell their jewel at that moment, a midfielder by the name of Hector Herrera.
And sure enough, Manchester United were linked… by Fassi.
Medio Tiempo quoted him as saying: “There is interest in Manchester that we have been dealing with for a while, they confirmed their interest after Mexico won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, but we have not yet received a formal proposal in terms of finances.
“They have spoken to us, including Marco Garces (a club director) who was in Manchester and met with them, but all that has not been made official, we haven’t received a formal offer.”
Herrera ultimately joined FC Porto in June 2013, the Manchester United links helping to up his profile.
Is this all a game from Fassi? Who knows, but if it is then Lozano sounds like he’ll be disappointed.
There’s claims which make it sound like a deal is only a matter of time, but the comments from Jesus Martinez would seem to refute that.
