Man Utd Target Ander Herrera Not For Sale Insist Athletic Bilbao

Manchester United target Ander Herrera will not be on the move next year, according to Athletic Bilbao president Josu Urrutia.

United had been prepared to trigger the €36million buy-out clause in Herrera’s contract on transfer deadline day, but the deal was affected by “bureaucratic” problems just hours before the summer transfer window closed on September 2nd.

United boss David Moyes is believed to be keen on returning with a fresh bid for the 24-year-old when the transfer window reopens in January, but Urrutia does not want the midfielder to leave Bilbao.

“I don’t know what other teams will do, but I consider the Herrera issue to be closed,” he told reporters.

“Ander has a contract until 2016. All players have to focus on giving Athletic all you can give.”

“We’ve got numbers,” he said last week.

“Maybe where we’ve got work to do is bring players in not for the squad but to go right into the team, so that’s the slightly different equation.

“It’s not necessarily the squad players we needed, we needed one or two who might have just gone in [to the team], but that will happen.”

The transfer window reopens on January 1st.