Manchester United have been accused of subjecting Adem Ljajic to "psychological shock" after pulling out of the £9m deal to sign the player dubbed 'Little Kaka' in Serbia, believing him to be too much of an expensive gamble at a time when the club's owner, Malcolm Glazer, is imposing financial cuts at Old Trafford.
Mladen Furtula, Ljajic's agent, has described the 18-year-old as "surprised" and admitted that United's decision to invoke a get-out clause not to go through with the transfer from Partizan Belgrade would "change our lives".
Goran Stevanovic, Partizan's head coach, praised Ljajic for "handling the situation well" and "overcoming the psychological shock". Savo Milosevic, the former Aston Villa striker who is running for the position of Partizan's new chairman, added: "For Ljajic, psychologically, this could have a negative impact, but I hope that this won't be the case."
The suspicion at Partizan is that United withdrew because of the club's spiralling debts under Glazer's ownership. Ivan Tomic, Partizan's sports director, said United had missed out on an "excellent, young player, a footballer of big potential". He added: "I think that they will regret this decision in future."
Ljajic, described by United as "Serbia's brightest young talent" when they announced the deal last January, was due to complete the move in next month's transfer window and has regularly visited Manchester over the last 11 months to work with his prospective new employers, the last occasion being in November when he was given no reason to believe there was a problem. Zoran Tosic, who moved in the same direction for £7.3m, has made only five substitute appearances and United fear he may have to reapply for his work permit.
A Serbia under-21 international, Ljajic had stayed in Belgrade to get some first-team experience, with Ferguson tipping him to be a big part of the next generation of United players to replace his older players – one of whom, Paul Scholes, admitted yesterday that his form had dipped this season and that he was "not making as much of a contribution as I'd like".
He will assess his future next summer: "You do think about the future. I am not too sure. I'll just carry on and we'll see what happens come the end of the season."
United then announced this week , in a statement endorsed by the chief executive David Gill, that they no longer considered Ljajic good enough to make the grade.
That, however, was contradicted today by the assistant manager, Mike Phelan, who said it was not because of the player's ability but because of potential work permit problems. "We made a tentative approach to get a work permit and the word we got back from the Home Office was that we couldn't get that through in time to get Adem signed in January," Phelan said.
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