United fans can sleep easily for the time being; their goalkeeper isn’t going anywhere.
David De Gea looks certain to remain between the sticks for Manchester United for the foreseeable future, with Real Madrid forced to stump up yet another world record fee if they are to prize him from Old Trafford, according to Marca.
Only a faulty fax machine prevented Real’s head-chopping honcho Florentino Perez from adding arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the European game to his ever-growing gathering of Galacticos in the summer of last year, with De Gea inking a new deal until 2019 just a few short days after months of wrangling resulted nothing but in a few unnecessary air miles.
The Spanish number one, who finally consigned Saint Iker to the history books ahead of Euro 2016, openly lauded the appointment of Jose Mourinho this summer after enduring a reportedly frosty relationship with cold-hearted, frozen-shouldered Louis van Gaal.
And, although United’s resurgence has been rather slower than imagined, as yet there are no reports to suggest De Gea is once again angling for a return to his birthplace any time soon – not that he appears to have much choice in the matter.
According to Marca, Real will be forced to dig deep to trigger De Gea’s £51 million release clause, comfortably outstripping the £33 million Juventus paid Parma for a fresh-faced Gianluigi Buffon all the way back in 2001.
It looks like Sam Johnstone’s got time for a few more loans.
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