On Tuesday, Torres had placed the deal in its final stretch. "What's missing is for LaLiga and me to reach an agreement. He has passed the medical and everything," he said on television, explaining that José Bordalás had asked him for a wide player: "We couldn't find one. So a wing-back, let's see if that works for him." He even announced that Carvajal would come to the club's facilities that same afternoon at 5pm.

The player did not turn up at that time. Asked outside the Coliseum by the reporters who had gathered to confirm the story, the president changed his tune: "No, he's not coming. Why would he come?" When reminded that he himself had announced the appointment, he replied: "Yes, but as a joke." He described the deal as "smoke" for the time being, although he acknowledged having spoken to the player about his fitness and said that registration was "the first thing that needs to be looked at". He also mentioned other free agents, such as Dani Parejo and Sergio Ramos.

On Wednesday morning, arriving at the club's offices, he was more blunt: "There's nothing. It has all broken down." Shortly afterwards he qualified his words: "There is no agreement; you can't break something that was never agreed. We are going to try. Every party has to give the OK: LaLiga, the player and the club. There will be nothing today."

In the afternoon, asked again, he gave the deal up for lost and said LaLiga had nothing to do with the outcome: "Nothing needs to change. I told you yesterday and this morning. Nothing is being triggered. LaLiga has nothing to do with it. In principle it has fallen through. In football, what is white today can be black tomorrow, but there you go."

As a free agent, Carvajal could join even though the transfer window is closed, but his registration had to fit within Getafe's squad cost limit. Deals of this kind, involving a player coming from a much higher salary, first go through LaLiga's Valuation Committee, made up of three independent experts, which decides whether the terms are in line with the market.

The 34-year-old full-back has been without a club since his contract with Real Madrid expired on 30 June, after 451 matches and 27 trophies across thirteen seasons there. Over the summer he turned down offers from the United States and the Middle East, intending to keep competing in Europe.