So... When will we hear what's happening?
Contract expires in just over 14 hours
Contract expires in just over 14 hours
David De Gea | Free agent | Said his goodbyes
- Thread starter roonster09
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Surely there will be closure on this today one way or another, and an announcement made. It'd be rather sad if nothing is officially announced and in a couple weeks we hear he's signed for some Saudi club
He should get a massive offer from Saudi
They wont care about his build up play and hes still a top shot stopper
I'm expecting a joint statement today thanking Dave for his service and the announcement of a future testimonial probably played next summer
They wont care about his build up play and hes still a top shot stopper
I'm expecting a joint statement today thanking Dave for his service and the announcement of a future testimonial probably played next summer
There is a loose rumour he's had a Saudi offer, count down well underway now.
Wish him all the best but defo time to part ways and try something new.
I wonder what they got him as gifts for his last day. Maybe some Amazon gift vouchers? A dozen box of Krispy Kreme? 
The disrespect in here is crazy. Guy is a legend of our club. He has records, titles, cups and is the last player left from when we actually knew how to win things. I’m not saying it’s not time for all parties to move on BUT it can be done with a bit of class, this isn’t FIFA.
also Mata signed his new extension post contract expiry. The actual date means nothing.
also Mata signed his new extension post contract expiry. The actual date means nothing.
De Gea? How have been handled him poorly?
The way we handle the departures of our legends is a disgrace sometimes. De Gea is the second best goalkeeper this club has had behind big Pete in my book. The last player at the club to win a league title. He deserves a testimonial.
His saves were smooth like snakes. Anyway I hope he gets a testimonial at some point if he does leave. Whats Perez and his fax machine up to these days?That's a bit harsh - give him some credit, it's not like he was playing in a super settled back 4 all season. City's keeper would have won it if it was only about how efficient the team around him is.
Fairly sure DDG averaged about 3 saves per game during most of his clean sheets and I am pretty sure there were quite a few where he had no saves to make at all.
and how does that compare with Ederson?
Time to go
The marching band parade and fireworks display are only a few hours away now.
I don't think people would really value your book, it's wide off the mark.
Ederson faces a ridiculously low amount of shots on goal, 77 all season in the PL - he kept 11 clean sheets. In most of those clean sheets he faced 1 shot, a few he faced none, the most he faced while not conceding was 5. But there were many games where he only faced 1 shot and still conceded.
Let's do the right thing. This is not the right way to treat your legend. He deserves proper testimonial to say goodbye to the fans.
Thank you DDG, you will always be one of us.
Thank you DDG, you will always be one of us.
Exactly.
Farewell Dave
I get your point, it isn't all about the collective,
but City conceded half as many shots on goal as Utd and half as many crosses into the box. Which suggests their collective efforts in defense protect their keeper from being called into action. This comes from being able to press so high up against the opposition.
Ederson is one of the biggest reasons City can press so high, this in turn reduces the amount of pressure on his defence and how many chances they allow the opposition create in dangerous areas.
Absolutely, but that's a separate argument. I'm 100% clear that we need a new keeper, and not in any sense saying that De Gea brings anything near to what Ederson does. Just pointing out to those who even seek to denigrate his golden gloves award last season that if it really was all about the defensive unit as a whole then surely Ederson would have won comfortably?
The influence of the keeper in this regard has started to become incredibly exaggerated on this board.
Absolutely, you need a keeper that is reasonably good with his feet and comfortable with the ball to play out from the back and fight for control over matches against teams that press.
But...
1) What's really important is that the keeper is above a certain bar, their height above that bar produces declining returns. Ederson is maybe the best in the world with the ball at his feet but City would be able to play the same with a lot of other reasonably good ball playing keepers.
2) The technical level of the other players, including the quality of your forward line, matters a TON. This is really the secret to City's ability to dominate games in possession. Its not that Ederson rarely turns the ball over in his defensive third, its that very few teams even press them anymore because City's defenders and midfielders simply will not cough up the ball and then their attackers will make you pay when they play through you.
3) The ability of City to press high is really a distinct (if interconnected) issue. They can do this largely because they have great defenders who can play in space but also because in possession they simply don't turn the ball over very much in the opponent's half, so they don't have to jump into pressing mode so often and when they do its usually out of a good structure.
At the end of the day, a modern ball-playing, sweeping-comfortable keeper is necessary to play this way but still only one piece of the puzzle. To play like City you really need 11 players on the field who suit that style.
This. Wish that fax machine never broke. We might have had 2 more trophies this season if it wasn't for De Blunder.
He probably would have. Dave dealt with what saves he had to in most games, can't really ask for more than that.
What's happened to De Gea is a really interesting case study - it's not often that the evolution of the game renders a previous top class player pretty much obsolete within the course of their own career. Like, he's still only 32, no injury concerns, not an ounce of body fat, and not a noticeable decline in ability - it's the game that has changed not him. I guess you could really say the same about Maguire - and that has happened in even less time. The pair of them could still play at the highest level for a team that is happy to defend deep and invite pressure, but are totally ill-suited to a team that presses and plays on the front foot. I hope they both go this summer, but I wish them both the best, particularly DDG.
Doubt it. We'd still be the biggest banter club in Europe.
It didn't break because it never existed.
I wonder what they got him as gifts for his last day. Maybe some Amazon gift vouchers? A dozen box of Krispy Kreme?
Let’s hope he doesn’t repeat his donut exploits if he goes to Saudi Arabia…one handed keepers don’t tend to hold their value.
I felt De Gea's time was up a long time ago but the way the club have gone about his department is disgraceful. He's been a long time servant for the club and won multiple player of seasons as well. Surely it would have been better to not offer him a contract at all rather than offer than retract. Everything about the club, above the manager, is still rotten. I can't wait for the Glazers to go so hopefully this type of scenario improves.
Less than 9 hours to go...
It's been messy but we've ended up at the correct decision if this is the case.
Until? You know his contract ending means diddly squat, right? He was free to sign with clubs abroad in January and he could have talked with any club in the world to sign from tomorrow but he hasn’t. He’s on holiday so he’ll either say he ain’t signing the new deal (why would he!) or we’ll communicate that we are moving on with someone else, which is exactly the same situation we were in yesterday.
This is an imaginary timer.
I don't necessarily agree with that, the rest is fairly true.
I remember Peter Schmeichel saying his style was push his defence as far away from his goal as possible, the further they were away, the less he had to do and the less chance the opposition had of scoring, but also it meant you won the ball higher up and could turn it around into an attack quicker, which Utd did regularly in the 90s. This was about 30 years ago, not that much has changed with keepers only now they are more expected to be involved with the build up play. The knock on effect of being able to play high, sweep, claim crosses and all that are still the same now as they were back then.
It's a weird one, it's not often a player can be at a top club for so long only for the game to pass them by. But he's never addressed a single weakness in his game. Aside from a small period under LVG it never felt like he really wanted to anything other than make saves.
Loads. He's played behind terrible defences at United so Everton wouldn't be an issue.
Can't get my head around this de gea situation.
It's hard for us to know what goes on behind the scenes and on the training ground. Previous managers may have thought his lack of footballing ability might be mitigated by his shot-stopping and been reluctant to ask him to change? To me this season - because ETH made it explicitly clear about how he wanted his team to play - he really did seem to be trying, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and probably not worth the effort on anybody's part. It must be hard to know you are being judged by the manager and everyone watching on a part of your game that you know is weak. For a while he really did seem to be improving and he seemed to be growing in confidence, but once things took a turn it was clear that that fragile confidence had gone to shit. You wonder (easy in retrospect) whether it might have been better to just tell him at Xmas that we wouldn't be renewing - then he could have played with a bit of freedom rather than having the sword of damocles hanging over his head and knowing that one more mistake with his feet might mean the end of his United career.
I don’t think this is true at all. It’s lazy journalism. He has clearly been told he is not a guaranteed number one next season, has been offered the salary of a backup to renew and the reason he hasn’t signed yet is because of that.
He isn’t being asked to “hang around”, he has been asked to consider a new role at the club. It’s very different.
I didn't want the club to extend De Gea after all his documented howlers, the lack of presence in the area and the poor footwork. That said, have some fecking class Murtough and Fletcher, and treat him with respect. If you're not extending him, be clear upfront, manage expectations and give the fans the chance to say goodbye to a loyal servant who's been exemplary in his behavior (donuts aside) for over a decade. Look at Liverpool how they treated Firmino, Milner and Keita - pure class.
FFS we're such a circus act - I'm sometimes embarrassed at the way the club acts and treats the players.
FFS we're such a circus act - I'm sometimes embarrassed at the way the club acts and treats the players.
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