"The first move was directly to the player, not the club, so we found out through the media in France," said Jerome Poupard, a spokesman for Rennes. "They [United] didn't contact the club and didn't make an offer. After a few weeks they contacted the club - that was a little bit strange.
"We know that Manchester United want Julien Escude but we need to keep this player because he's very special and has an important place in our team. We also know that Julien wants to go to Manchester, so we have a problem."