Silverware or the sack
HERRERA’S PLEA
YAYA TOURE reckons the axe will fall at Manchester City if they have another season of failure. The midfielder (below) insists the pressure is on boss Pep Guardiola and his stars to win trophies following a disappointing campaign at The Etihad in 2016-17. Guardiola was expected to sweep all before him after succeeding Manuel Pellegrini at City last summer. But the Spaniard’s men fell out of the title race in the early part of 2017, crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage and failed to win either of the domestic cups. Toure says there must be a big improvement next season – otherwise the consequences will be serious. The Ivorian said: “We need to start the season quickly now, you know. “It’s the same for the players and the manager. If we don’t win something then we will be removed very
ANDER HERRERA admits it would be a disaster if David De Gea left Manchester United for Real Madrid. The Spanish giants remain keen on luring De Gea to Madrid before the start of the season. Real bosses saw a £20million deal collapse at the last minute in 2015 when the paperwork did not reach the authorities in time. De Gea then signed a new l ong- t er m deal with United but he remains on Real’s wish-list. And now the Premier League outfit are braced for another bid before the transfer window closes. United take on Real in Santa Clara, California, tonight in the International Champions Cup when the focus of attention will be on the Spain goalkeeper. De Gea, 26, has been a revelation at United in recent seasons and established himself as one of the best keepers in the world. Herrera, 27, admits his close friend and fellow Spaniard is crucial to the future success of United under Jose Mourinho. He said: “I am repeating myself every day. He is a goalkeeper who can give you points. That is very important. “I want to keep him here, to play with him because he’s a fantastic keeper and also my friend. “I think you can see he’s very focused on Manchester United. “If you lose the top three in any position, like David is, like Paul Pogba is, like Romelu Lukaku is, like Marcus Rashford can be, it causes problems. We don’t want to lose them. “We want to keep them and David is in the top three. “For me, he’s the best in the world so I want to keep him here at United.” United won three trophies last season and secured Champions League qualification by landing the Europa League crown with a 2-0 win over Ajax in Stockholm. Herrera admits it will be difficult to repeat the feat and would like United to focus on launching a serious assault on the Premier League title. The midfielder added: “We want to fight for the Premier League. “We had a very good season, a successful campaign and the last game was a really important game. “We won it so we can say we had a very good season but now we want to fight for the Premier League. “I don’t like to compare the players of last season with this one, just that we have the same ideas and the same manager. “We are going to work the same way but we have to improve on the number of draws we had at home.”