Manchester United target Sergio Ramos claims he wanted to stay at Real Madrid – but didn’t sign his contract extension in time.

A brutally honest Ramos has admitted he waited too long to accept Real Madrid’s contract offer because by the time he had decided he wanted to stay at the club, the deal had been taken off the table.

Ramos’s place at Madrid has already been taken with David Alaba arriving on a free from Bayern Munich.

Speaking to the Spanish press, Ramos said: “The offer was accepted but it had a use-by date.

“They informed us a week ago that the offer had run-out. I don’t know why it had an expiry date.

“Maybe I interpreted it wrongly or I didn’t understand it but no one told me.”

Ramos regretted that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was not in attendance at his last press conference at the club.

There was also the surprising admission that there is no new destination lined-up.

“There has been the occasional call from interested clubs,” he said. “We will start the search now.”

He also admitted that Sevilla was for the moment “not on option”.

Asked why he had not spoken earlier including to respond to claims he was a ‘pesetero’ (money grabber) he said: ‘It didn’t seem right to me to come out and talk while the club were still competing.’

It came after Ramos broke down in tears delivering a farewell speech in front of his family at the Bernabeu.

“This is a see you soon more than a goodbye,” said Ramos. “Sooner or later I will be back. And I will always keep Madrid in my heart.”

But Ramos later said in his final press conference that he would have gone back and accepted the one-year contract extension with a pay reduction Real offered him – only to find it had expired.

“I never wanted to leave Real Madrid, I always wanted to stay here,’ Ramos said.

“In the last few months the club made me an offer of one year, with a pay cut.

“I want to highlight that money has never been a problem, the president knows that.

“It wasn’t a financial problem. They offered me one year, I wanted two. I wanted calm and continuity for my family…

“In the latest conversations, I accepted the offer with a pay cut, and I was told there was no longer an offer.

“I was told that despite having given the OK to the proposal, it had an expiry date and I didn’t realise… It surprised me.

“It’s true that it was communicated to me just a week ago, via my agent, that the offer had expired without us knowing.

“Nobody had given us an ultimatum… I thought there was a possibility to accept the last offer they had put on the table… They’re questions I can’t answer. The club has its priorities.”

Photo Credit: Twitter/SergioRamos