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How is it poor? We offered him a contract that was inline with him being the number one goalie next season, we offered him this in midseason. He then had a shit show (after signing) that contract in the second half of the season. So United said, no thanks, we don't like these terms anymore, here's a contract that puts you in line with a second choice goalie instead.
Contracts are performance based deals, not fecking charity gigs.
With our finances a mess I'm surprised we've made GK a priority
This story is nonsense. It's not possible to withdraw an offer after a contract has already been signed.
Why is De Gea still negotiating with United for new Contract I simply can't make sense of it , if he was disrespected and done dirty by United something doesn't add up .
Maybe the player signed and we haven't...?
That or he verbally agreed but it was spicier to say he signed. I am not that big on the journalism standards these days.
For me doesn't make sense United are the party offering the terms wouldn't it be logical that United should be first to sign the formal Contract before sending it to De Gea . De Gea camp it seems has done hit job on United Management and media are happy to oblige without questioning anything .
And if United has really mismanaged the situation and disrespected De Gea why the hell he is still negotiating doesn't he have any sense of principle or pride .
He's a football player
If you had read the story, you would know that United hadn't signed the deal, only De Gea had, hence the reason the contract was withdrawn.
You're missing the point.
If he's not worth the money, don't offer it him in the first place. If there's doubt about offering him the contract, then dont offer him an inflated figure so early.
There's being ruthless and being disrespectful, and we crossed the line here. This isn't even about de Gea. If the club behaved like this with any player I would be ashamed.
Like I say though. Because it fits the narrative it's acceptable behavior by some because of who the victim is. Double standards at it's finest.
Pretty much spot on.
It's poor which ever way you look at it. Even in your scenario, you think it's normal to react like that to half a seasons form? It shows somebody is severely lacking in foresight if they were happy with him at the midway point but changed their mind in the second half of the season. Even your average RedCafe poster knew there were issues with De Gea and his distribution etc way before then. So why were we offering him that deal to begin with?
It hadn't been signed by both parties.
I'm not, try seeing this from the managers perspective for a second.
You have a limited budget, FFP is making things tight. You don't trust your GK 100% but he's done okay for most of the season, even though he's causing you to compromise on the football you want to play.
You agree to renew him and keep him on for one more year as first choice so you start negotiations with the player. He then signs a deal on reduced terms to be the number 1 next season and goes on to cost you multiple big games in the season, including a final, at which point you realise that this guy could actually cost you your job if you finish trophiless at a big club like United.
So you change the terms of the deal instead and agree to keep him on but not as first choice, based on HIS performances.
Contracts during Fergie's time were almost always done in the offseason, there's no value in giving new contracts in the middle of the season for this exact reason, you end up having to change the terms if the player isn't good enough or your transfer plans change.
Maybe after being here for only a few months Ten Hag didn't really have a solid opinion of De Gea and now he does? He forces the manager to compromise on how he wants to play, and makes high profile mistakes in big games. Everyone deserves a chance until they prove their not up to it, De Gea did that.
I'd like to think ETH and our coaches knew all about De Gea before a ball was even kicked. The issues were laid to bare in game 1 and 2 of the season, if not. It was all very obvious from early on, not much actually changed in the second half of the season that wasn't already apparent.
It's neither ruthless nor disrespectful, it's just the club being indecisive as usual. They wanted him as a starter, and their previous offer reflected that. They changed their mind over the last few months due to De Gea's performances. Now, they want him as a backup, it wouldn't make sense to keep the same offer. They changed it and it is likely still more money than 90% of the keeper in the PL earn.
I think the 2nd offer is really because they respect De Gea too much. They should release him but because of his services, they are offering him the chance to stay at the club.
I think the 2nd offer is really because they respect De Gea too much. They should release him but because of his services, they are offering him the chance to stay at the club.
If you don't see how this exact scenario reflects poorly on the employeer, then there's probably nothing I can say to convince you. It's just not how you should go about your business.
When did this happen ?
So it's Wednesday and his contract runs out on Friday. I know he can still sign a new deal after old one expires but it's weird situation anyways.
Think the fact there's no rumours about clubs interested in De Gea says enough about his worth these day. I mean even ih he leaves United he'll surely find a new club but it's not like clubs are battling for him exactly.
Think the fact there's no rumours about clubs interested in De Gea says enough about his worth these day. I mean even ih he leaves United he'll surely find a new club but it's not like clubs are battling for him exactly.
Poor by the club, really poor. If you dont want thim dont offer him a contract. Its like they're waiting for him to bail out and when he made a decision and signed they withdrew their initial offer.
Telling him we will discuss a new contract towards the end the season as we are assessing options. No need to offer him that initial contract, which was reported to be 150k to 200k a week and no need to tell him he will be leaving.
The club should have at least had a clear idea what they wanted to do in the GK department. Clearly they didn't which probably highlights that the club was content with him remaining as no.1 which makes me question what value is Murtough bringing? Seems he's basically just instructed by ETH.
100% exactly this!
The reduced contract offer was made towards the end of the season by reports, surely ETH would have been involved in the conversations for that. There is no two ways about it, it's no point expecting him to turn it down, they should have been clear to either tell him then or leave everything until the end of the season and discuss it then. They made an offer on reduced terms and now they seem to have taken that away and come back with another offer on further reduced terms. It's fecking amateurish stuff and should this happen in any other organisation, the person conducting the business would be a joke.
I'm not sure what your point is regarding his previous contract. He and his agent negotiated a suitable contract for him, we didn't need to offer him such a high wage, that was the club's decision, they could have easily offered him what they thought and left it at that and sold him if they didnt want to go any further. No point say he took us to the cleaners, the club wasn't forced into anything, it decided to offer these wages. Other clubs have a ceiling and stick to that.
Has there been any other clubs looking to take him on a free?
Who knows the real story...but everything you say (plausible imo) reflects poorly. Offering a newer contract as a thank you for his services just makes everything worse. Sigh
Which is not exactly a shocking revelation, is it?
The way the club sale is dragging on and on really shines a light on the lack of decisiveness at the very top. Which, in turn, explains why so many of our transfer ins and outs have been dragged out or fudged over the years. We’re a horribly run club and have been for a very long time.
Maybe the offer was based on him being 1st choice because replacing him wasn't a priority with the limited transfer budget, then De Gea’s shite performances made it clear getting a new GK is a priority so things changed.
Much better to correct the mistake now by withdrawing the contract offer rather than having him sat on the bench on massive wages just to be respectful
He has interest from the Saudi league.
The outcome is correct. The way we got there was, at best, unprofessional.
Huge mistake on the clubs, (Murtough’s) behalf, simply for the reassurance that’d he ‘d remain first choice keeper and proposing to offer him another contract towards the end of last season.
Now I can’t see how we can’t honour this, and no doubt it’ll be a ridiculously lucrative deal too.
Now I can’t see how we can’t honour this, and no doubt it’ll be a ridiculously lucrative deal too.
So, trying to make sense of this.
It looks like the initial contract offer was for him was with the belief of him still being a no.1 keeper. The drastically reduced wages are probably still a lot if we are scaling it on his ridiculous 375k week contract. ETH then looks like made it clear that DDG will not be the 1st choice next year and he wants a new keeper, so either let him go or offer him a contract in line with a 2nd choice keeper, which the club have done.
The salary for a 2nd choice is likely far lesser than his previous salary, but with the Saudi interest, it looks like DDG also made his decision as well and is not worried about it that much either.
This should have been handled much better no doubt and looks a bit of a circus, but I am not against the actual decision and thinking behind it.
ETH is right to demand better, and not just keep penny pinching and trying to just about be a top 4 challenging club and not aim higher. No surprise at the mess with the money men though, happy to keep mediocrity going as they can keep penny pinching and not making the big decisions.
It looks like the initial contract offer was for him was with the belief of him still being a no.1 keeper. The drastically reduced wages are probably still a lot if we are scaling it on his ridiculous 375k week contract. ETH then looks like made it clear that DDG will not be the 1st choice next year and he wants a new keeper, so either let him go or offer him a contract in line with a 2nd choice keeper, which the club have done.
The salary for a 2nd choice is likely far lesser than his previous salary, but with the Saudi interest, it looks like DDG also made his decision as well and is not worried about it that much either.
This should have been handled much better no doubt and looks a bit of a circus, but I am not against the actual decision and thinking behind it.
ETH is right to demand better, and not just keep penny pinching and trying to just about be a top 4 challenging club and not aim higher. No surprise at the mess with the money men though, happy to keep mediocrity going as they can keep penny pinching and not making the big decisions.
The Saudi league clubs are rumored to be interested.
All the people complaining about De Gea treated badly. The guy has been stealing a living for years. £400K for years.. 
All that is happening is we now have a Gaffer who isn't a sentimental fool and is laying the law and standards down. And like Pep with Joe Hart is ruthless enough to treat players as chess pieces and pawns (like they are and deserve to be treated as De Gea wanted to go to Real Madrid years ago and leave the club in the lurch if the fax machine never broke), football is a business! Either get use to modern football or stop watching. Getting emotionally attached to individual players is so 90s/2000s.
I want Manchester United to be successful, and in order to do that you need to revamp the club from top to bottom to be like Manchester City. Like it or not Sentimental F.C is not winning trophies anytime soon and competing with City.
All that is happening is we now have a Gaffer who isn't a sentimental fool and is laying the law and standards down. And like Pep with Joe Hart is ruthless enough to treat players as chess pieces and pawns (like they are and deserve to be treated as De Gea wanted to go to Real Madrid years ago and leave the club in the lurch if the fax machine never broke), football is a business! Either get use to modern football or stop watching. Getting emotionally attached to individual players is so 90s/2000s.
I want Manchester United to be successful, and in order to do that you need to revamp the club from top to bottom to be like Manchester City. Like it or not Sentimental F.C is not winning trophies anytime soon and competing with City.
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Yeah, the club put themselves in this situation and turned it into a circus. I would say this really started in 2020 when we didn't sell Henderson and had a couple of keepers on 500k per week. Everyone knew what De Gea is like as a keeper, it should've been fully anticipated this would happen. It is a bit like thinking that Ronaldo could work with Ten Hag.
So you’re saying that Ten Hag shouldn’t have given De Gea the opportunity to show he could learn to adapt to a new system and came in and shown him the door right away? Ten Hag wanted a keeper last summer. We were linked.
He hasn’t been told he’s leaving? He’s been offered another contract in line with what a second choice backup keeper would earn.
What’s the alternative here? United don’t want to hurt Dave’s feelings so they go ahead and give him a massive contract and then sign another keeper anyway? Sure he’d love to sit on the bench all season after signing a new contract that states he’s the first choice keeper.
The budget might not have been there to sign the amount of players we need to sign but maybe they know something about sales or new management that might allow the purchase of additional players in more positions. The situation is fluid and for some reason people can’t see past someone having their feelings hurt. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.
The Athletic are saying that something changed in the last few weeks for United to pull the offer after they'd never signed off on it in the first place. And guess what happened/changed in the last few weeks, Matt Hargreaves, the new head of transfer/contract negotiations started his job at the club on the 12th of June. And he's got many years of experience negotiating player contracts. No one is even talking about the new negotiations chief starting his job at the club on the 12th of June. It's kind of a big thing within a football structure. So United not signing off on the extension makes absolute sense due to Matt Hargreaves joining the club on the 12th of June. And imo he's decided to lower De Gea's wage further. And ten Hag wants to keep him due to De Gea being one of his 4 'lieutenants' in the dressing room per James Ducker.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hargreaves-a6894315
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Makes sense.
We have been overpaying for average performances for years so it’s about time someone brings salaries in line with their output.
I’m out of the loop on this one, but if his contract ends at the end of June and the club have an option for the next year, I would assume that year is going to be at the current wages. So this contract extension is effective starting July 2023 or July 2024? Also do we know if this optional year has been exercised or not?
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