Granada, director of football Pep Boada, has detailed his efforts to sign midfielder Yangel Herrera from Manchester City this summer.
Herrera spent the last two seasons with the Spanish side, initially joining them in July 2019 and extending that deal for last season as well.
He returned to Manchester City in the summer, but it was soon made apparent that he was not a part of their plans for this season at least.
He was subsequently linked with a move elsewhere but eventually ended up at Espanyol on loan, the third different club he’s been loaned out to since joining Manchester City in 2017.
That move came as something of a surprise given his association with Granada, who would have been more than happy to take him again.
Indeed, it seems they tried to make a move happen, with Boada detailing the extent of his efforts and questioning how he ended up elsewhere.
“The cost of last year we couldn’t assume because we don’t have the club from Europe. If you ask me what Espanyol paid, I would also consider it,” Voz Perica report him saying, adding that the move to Espanyol ‘has not gone down well’.
“There were contacts from the beginning of the market. He could help us improve. At the start, we contacted his agent and him.
“Evidently, he was out of Granada’s economic reality, in line with England, with Manchester City. It was impossible. Everything was at a standstill, unfeasible.
“Manchester City wanted him to stay in the country. A month passed, and we saw that Yangel Herrera was not leaving, we tried, but it was out of our financial reach. That’s as far as I can read.
“The fact that he ended up at Espanyol would have to be explained by the player and Manchester City.”
