Kunta Kinte Heinze
A Premiership panel has confirmed that United are legally entitled to bar Gabriel Heinze’s move to Liverpool.
“The hearing concluded that nature and intention of the disputed 13 June 2007 letter, especially when taken in context of verbal discussions and Manchester United FC’s transfer policy, was unambiguous in that it envisages only an international transfer, “ a Premier League statement declared.
It is not yet clear whether Heinze will appeal against the decision.
United may be satisfied that their hardline position has been vindicated but the two month process leaves both sides looking more than a little dishevelled.
Heinze is now finished at Old Trafford having outed himself as willing to play for the club’s bitterest rivals. After an injury-interrupted three years, during which United behaved considerately, Heinze has made himself an outcast.
The decision is a rare triumph for club-power but for their part, United appear like feudal masters, hiding behind a contract even though they want rid of the player. This might work in Bavaria but it is not the way of English football where players’ wishes normally hold sway.
As argued elsewhere in these pages, United should have sent the defender on his way with a flea in his ear, once it became clear that it was Heinze as well as his agent who was agitating for a move to Liverpool.
And yet, there is something unsettling about a decision which confirms Heinze as little more than a high class indentured labourer. Former chief executive Peter Kenyon, was able to skip off to Chelsea with the secrets of the United club house after only a few months of gardening leave. Heinze, intent on similar ‘treachery’ has no such luck!
AU asked last week whether United had new information that the Argentine defender answered to the name Kunta Kinte, the quasi - fictional Alex Haley character of plantation America, who was robbed of his right to choose.
After today’s ruling, we now have our answer.
READ: Heinze File
