Dave’s keeping good company
IF we are to include the one-year option on David de Gea’s contract, he could spend 13 years in the United first-team.
That would be greater longevity than George Best, Denis Law and Roy Keane, as long as Bryan Robson and Wayne Rooney, and more than double his predecessor Edwin van der Sar.
The De Gea contract agreement was not as long as United had hoped, though an extra year is much of a muchness with a goalkeeper who turns 29 in November and struggled for form the last six months.
United held discussions with De Gea’s agent Jorge Mendes for the best part of two years and the club submitted an improved offer in late June.
The De Gea negotiations dragged on for so long some United supporters became indifferent to the prospect of losing De Gea on a free.
United have had the best years of De Gea’s career, he has been errorprone since March and there were internal and impressive replacements in Sergio Romero and Dean Henderson. Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid was also enthused by the prospect of moving to United.
United were never in a position as invidious as they were with De Gea in 2015. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward met Real Madrid president Florentino Perez in Miami ahead of the teams’ friendly last July and was informed they were about to sign Thibaut Courtois.
Paris Saint-Germain touched base with De Gea’s camp in the summer but received little encouragement and United had all but finalised his extension in late July. PSG bought Keylor Navas from Madrid on deadline day.
Sources close to De Gea say he used the summer holidays as a ‘reflective period’ to mull over his future.
De Gea is now on £375,000-perweek and United claim his salary was always the stumbling block.
De Gea’s camp concede he wage hike has helped but he has always put footballing decisions ahead of finances. De Gea is convinced he can still win silverware at United.
The Spaniard appreciated the support of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his backroom coaching staff during what was described as his ‘lowest ebb’ in the spring. The goalkeeping coach Emilio Alvarez - De Gea’s mentor at Atletico - is the only surviving member of Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff still at United.
Solskjaer, like Mourinho, tailored his staff to suit De Gea by retaining Alvarez and actually spoke with the number one about the matter.
De Gea, now the first-team captain, is poised to inherit that honour on a full-time basis next year unless the evergreen Ashley Young stays on.
Though he might not make it to 13 years.