There has been so much talk about David De Gea in the previous years. Basically every single summer, the big talking point is whether the Spaniard will stay in Manchester or whether the club will sign a new goalkeeper to challenge him or even displace him from the starting position in goal. Even this June already, the details about De Gea’s potential stay or departure were coming in on a daily basis. But while everyone was expecting to see what will happen before the end of the month, when his contract runs out, no one expected the run of events which actually unfolded.
According to The Athletic, David De Gea was given a new contract to extend his stay at Manchester United, which he signed. However, the club backed out of the agreed proposal. De Gea is earning 375k pounds per week until the end of June 2023, and he agreed to reduce his wages in order to stay at Old Trafford. But that new deal he was given and he duly signed was not completed, as the club afterwards backed out of it. This would mean that someone with power at Man United decided against such a move, with some reports even claiming that could be Erik Ten Hag himself.
If De Gea is to stay at Man United and become the number two choice in goal, it does not make sense to keep him around with such big wages, even though they would be cut from his current 375k per week deal. Talks are understood to be ongoing between De Gea and his team with Man United, but things do not look positive in terms of the player’s potential stay at the club. It does not make sense for club to make such a move if they are to try and still keep De Gea at United, so a scenario in which he walks free at the end of the contract seems the most realistic one.
Whatever happens with De Gea, it is clear this was a big own goal by the leadership of Manchester United. The club of this stature should never allow themselves to make such a blunder as they have in dealing with De Gea. If someone at the club did not want to keep De Gea, then a new contract proposal should not have been given to the player to sign it. While there are many Man United fans who feel the club should move on from the Spaniard and start a new era with an improvement in goal, this was still far from how the club could have and should have dealt with this situation.
As much as Erik Ten Hag could be getting this team through a sort of a rebuild and trying to make it modern on the pitch, some of the practices from the club officials behind the scenes clearly remain shambolic at times.
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