The Static Age

Perfect example of the insinuations of journalists today from The Guardian but most papers follow suit - give the "official version," calling it such, and then say "however..." followed by made up rumour:

Ljajic, 18, was part of the £16.5m deal that also saw his Partizan Belgrade team-mate Zoran Tosic move to Old Trafford last January. The teenager had been on trial at United the previous October and was regarded at the time as the more promising of the two players but United also decided that he should remain in Belgrade to get some more first-team experience before moving to England.

What was not revealed at the time was that the club also stipulated that a get-out clause was written into the contract to cover themselves before Ljajic moved to Manchester long term, and the club have now confirmed they have used that agreement to pull out of the arrangement.

The official reason is that Ljajic has failed to live up to the hype since he broke into the Partizan team at the start of the 2008-09 season and has not impressed United's coaching staff on his regular trips to Manchester to train with the rest of Sir Alex Ferguson's players. ...

A United spokesperson said: "We had an option to buy the player but, having closely monitored his development over the past 12 months, and taken into consideration the young players emerging through the ranks at the club, we have not chosen to pursue the transfer."

The decision will, however, raise inevitable questions about whether the club's owners, Malcolm Glazer and his family, have involved themselves in Ferguson's planning for the future at a time when they are making substantial cuts at Old Trafford.

Of course the official version seems entirely reasonable, but why let that get in the way of a good story...
The Independent's report on the subject has a nice contradiction w/r/t Tosic:

Tosic has sunk without trace. Though the United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, suggested last January that Tosic might be a part of things by the end of the season, the player has proved too slight to make an impact and his contributions have been limited to five League Cup games, the most recent an eight-minute appearance in the 2-0 win over Tottenham on Tuesday night.

Sunk without trace - except for him being on the pitch in our last game... Ian Herbert sucks...