PERHAPs the mutual name-calling after David de Gea’s botched move to the Bernabeu served some purpose for both clubs. It switched discussion away not just from the obvious point – why needlessly cut it so close? – but also from the broader one: why did these two clubs with their enormous budgets fail to address key needs?

And it allowed the zealots in both camps to unquestioningly embrace their respective party lines, particularly after first Real Madrid and then Manchester United gave them easy-to-follow road maps in the form of official statements.

The communiques, of course, are carefully worded not to rebut – read them again and you’ll see they don’t ever contradict each other on any specific verifiable point – but to justify. Devoid of meaningful context, and couched in official-sounding language to suit whoever is making the case, they can be used to support any argument.

That time stamp at two minutes before the deadline, which is when Real Madrid received the transfer documents from United? To the Spanish club, it is evidence that United dragged their feet. To United, it is proof they did their part because two minutes are plenty to upload a few documents.

The subsequent noises are equally aimed at re-writing history.

Real president Florentino Perez says De Gea will definitely be the heir to Iker Casillas with Spain, but “not necessarily” with Casillas’s old club side. Indeed, he refused to confirm they were still pursuing him.

United’s narrative is even more curious. They now say they never intended to sell De Gea. Which, of course, rather begs the question of why they quoted a price in media briefings – £32 million – and then lowered it significantly in the final hours of the transfer window so they could begin negotiations with Real Madrid. Or, indeed, why they bothered hammering out a deal with makeweight Keylor Navas and uploading the required Fifa documents. (Because, you know, that’s what you do when you don’t want to sell. You quote an asking price, you lower it, you agree a deal, you do all the paperwork.)

What all this has done is obscure the fact that both teams, to most observers, had three clear-cut objectives heading into the final weeks of the transfer window. Resolving the goalkeeping issue was one which saw both clubs come up short. (And, incidentally, had the move gone through, United would have ended up with Navas and Sergio Romero, two guys who spent most of the past year on the bench.)

Both clubs needed credible alter- natives to their veteran centre- forwards, Karim Benzema and Wayne Rooney. The closest Real Madrid have to a back up central striker – unless they wish to move Cristiano Ronaldo, who doesn’t want to play there and who usually gets what he wants – is Jese, who is 22 and has only played on the wing. Manchester United, on the other hand, have two 19-year-olds, one home-grown (James Wilson), the other who cost £37m plus up to £20m in add-ons and whose move from Monaco raised more than a few eyebrows in France. Between them, they have started 32 top-flight games.

Both clubs needed help at the other end. Real Madrid craved a ball-winner all last season. They ended up signing for £30m plus yet another attacking midfielder, 21-year-old Mateo Kovacic.

United needed a stud centre-back, but none materialised and the summer ended with Louis van Gaal insisting he is happy with the central defenders at his disposal.

United’s summer transfers at least got off to a good start; Real Madrid can’t even claim that.

Still, consider the bigger picture and it seems oddly fitting that both would end the window with such a colossal farce.

SIR Alex Ferguson’s next book, Leading, is out this month and an early extract reveals he now believes that ruling with an iron fist may have cost United silverware. Incidents involving David Beckham, Jaap Stam, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy come to mind. And, while Sir Alex insists he has no regrets – discipline has to come before anything else – you do tend to share his view that a more forgiving approach, at least in the short term, might have yielded more trophies.

It is interesting to remember though the time that Sir Alex did not crack the whip in the face of indiscipline. In 2001-02 season, Paul Scholes famously refused to play in a weakened XI against Arsenal in the League Cup. He had been dropped the week before and saw it as a further demotion and humiliation.

Scholes wasn’t a kid at the time. He was 27 and had been a starter for six seasons. Yet Sir Alex welcomed him back into the fold. And he remained a key figure at the club for more than a decade.

FOLLOWING their 1-0 win over Cyprus, Wales are on the brink of securing qualification to Euro 2016 with games to spare. Cue a surge up the Fifa rankings – they are ahead of England now – and praise all around for Chris Coleman.

No doubt the Wales manager deserves it, but perhaps the real lesson for the Welsh, or any country of comparable size, lies elsewhere. Sometimes, all it takes is a tidy, intelligent coach, two superstars (Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale) and service- able pros who can execute.

Look at the XI who beat Cyprus. The keeper, Wayne Hennessey, started just 15 games since 2012, and 12 of those were on loan at Yeovil Town. Two of the back five, Chris Gunter and Jazz Richards, play in the Championship, as do two of the midfielders (David Edwards and Hal Robson-Kanu) and two of the three substitutes (Sam Vokes and Simon Church).

Coleman has called it his “Golden Generation”. It is in the sense that nine of the 14 who played against Cyprus are aged between 24 and 26, so they have played (and grown) together for a long time. Yet the only truly “golden” bits are Bale and Ramsey. The rest are no less important; they are the sort of supporting cast that allows them to influence games. And that has made all the difference.