It has been confirmed today that Gabriel Heinze will not be granted permission by the Premier League to join the dippers. Gabby has made his feelings more than clear over recent weeks about his desire to leave, feeling he deserves the clubs’ blessing after the “loyalty” he has shown to us over the years.

Ferguson stuck to his guns, and despite Rafa “Red Riding Hood” Benitez claiming the player would be Anfield bound, Heinze has lost his appeal. Sir Alex was not going to be the first manager in decades to allow a switch between the two clubs, and it is remarkable that the dippers would go to such effort to sign our second choice left back.

The official statement read, “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.

“Furthermore the hearing finds the letter constitutes an ‘agreement to agree’, and did not create an obligation or binding agreement for the club to transfer the player to any particular club.

“In other words the letter is evidence of an intention to negotiate, both between the parties and with potential buying clubs, and not evidence of any intention to create legal relations.”

The future is now rather bleak for our once loved Argie. He made it when he joined Manchester United, and if he is not careful, his career could go up in smoke. To quote him just a month or so ago, everything was “perfect” for him in Manchester. He had been a champion, a captain, and the fans loved him. Why he was determined to move away from the club still baffles me.

His options are rather narrow now however, and his life will be far from perfect if he is to stay in Manchester. Ferguson claimed last week that he would not allow the fans to dictate to him whether Heinze played or not. I imagine this was just talk to get the Premiership panel on board (as I can hardly imagine it going down well Ferguson admitting he was never going to play the lad again and that he couldn’t wait to get shot of him…as long as it wasn’t to Liverpool) as I can’t see how there is any way he can walk out at Old Trafford wearing our shirt again. I can’t see how the fans will ever forgive him for this.

So either he can return to France and play for Lyon (who would be likely to settle for Heinze, even though they recently confessed mighty Silvestre is their first choice target), rot in our reserves, or hope that one of the bigger clubs who had been previously linked with him put in a bid.

One thing is for certain, no club will love him like we did, and he will be reminded of that everytime he hears Tevez’s Argentina chants and sees Tevez’s Argentina shirts and flags in the crowd.