Still not signed yet? Does this count as De Gea holding the club to ransom? I thought at Manchester United no player is bigger than the team 
De Gea contract talk | Signs new deal
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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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He should burn all videos of last nights match whilst negotiating as he had a rare shocker.
James Robson might be a Harvard professor but I think he got the DDG situation wrong.
Those who say they don't mind losing him have forgotten just how good he is. Or perhaps dont understand his level compared to his contemporaries.
Yes.
Yay we all love him again!
I cant believe anyone would not mind losing him, he has probably gained/saved you more points in the last 5 years or so than any other player! He is arguably the best in the world at shot stopping, and despite last night his distribution isn't too shabby either.
It's clear he wants to stay. Usually, if a dispute is monetary, a top team will find a solution. Will be very surprised if this goes into the summer.
I logged in with 10 new alerts and I expected the worst. It wasn't bad after all.
The truth is I've been reading for some time the typical "give him whatever he wants" so I expected a different reaction. But in the end and trying to respond to everyone who quoted me, I think it's normal that many of us agree on this because 300k is still crazy as you said, 350k is just outrageus for a keeper and 350k for 5 years "not being enough" is just a mockery. We all want to keep our best players but there has to be a limit at some point.
If we finally agree a deal with him I'd be pleased but it would be better if it wasn't for too long as I said, taking into account his profile and age. With 3 years of contract there's a reasonable margin to evaluate things in the following seasons, and keep the player motivated to have something to prove.
And for me there's 2 aspects that should be evaluated in the coming years regarding to him:
-How he's aging in terms of agility, reflexes, his physical conditions overall.
-How he adapts to a more offensive setup and style, who requires a modern keeper more than a traditional one.
Maybe I'm underrating his ability to add new resources to his game, but normally it's hard for someone at 28 to implement dramatical changes on his style of play. So if we had De Gea tied for 3 years more, we could evaluate everything and make a new decision when he's around 31.
With 5 years contract our hands would be tied and we depend on him if not improving, at least keeping his skills and motivation almost intact during that time. It could be good for us in the end anyway, but on the paper it wouldn't be the best business made in football. So we'll see what happens.
Ah Jesus.
Problem with a three year contract is that one year into the contract we'll be back in the "two years left on his deal, we should probably think about renewing it" hysteria again, and risk losing a 30 year old keeper on the cheap because he's only got one year remaining. You could offset the potential drop-off in quality by negotiating a first choice clause or have some of the wages be performance based, ie if he's not the first choice anymore after three years then his salary drops, but IMO 33 (which he'll be in the summer of 2024 when a five year contract would expire) is no age for a keeper barring injuries. Even if he drops a level he'll be comfortably better than 90% of the keepers in the world, and the last 10% would cost a huge amount of money to get and might not be worth it compared to investing in the rest of the team.I logged in with 10 new alerts and I expected the worst. It wasn't bad after all.
The truth is I've been reading for some time the typical "give him whatever he wants" so I expected a different reaction. But in the end and trying to respond to everyone who quoted me, I think it's normal that many of us agree on this because 300k is still crazy as you said, 350k is just outrageus for a keeper and 350k for 5 years "not being enough" is just a mockery. We all want to keep our best players but there has to be a limit at some point.
If we finally agree a deal with him I'd be pleased but it would be better if it wasn't for too long as I said, taking into account his profile and age. With 3 years of contract there's a reasonable margin to evaluate things in the following seasons, and keep the player motivated to have something to prove.
And for me there's 2 aspects that should be evaluated in the coming years regarding to him:
-How he's aging in terms of agility, reflexes, his physical conditions overall.
-How he adapts to a more offensive setup and style, who requires a modern keeper more than a traditional one.
Maybe I'm underrating his ability to add new resources to his game, but normally it's hard for someone at 28 to implement dramatical changes on his style of play. So if we had De Gea tied for 3 years more, we could evaluate everything and make a new decision when he's around 31.
With 5 years contract our hands would be tied and we depend on him if not improving, at least keeping his skills and motivation almost intact during that time. It could be good for us in the end anyway, but on the paper it wouldn't be the best business made in football. So we'll see what happens.
I think he knows just as well as the club that it's his last big contract, and if he's confident in his ability to keep his spot then he'd probably agree to such a deal. Then again, he might be like Buffon and be great into his forties, and Buffon's not really a keeper that's made a career out of being dominant in the air/mopping up through balls/excelling in other non-shot stopping qualities.
I hope that's some kind of crap joke. De Gea is the best keeper in the world and should be our top earner. Club have been messing around with his contract for ages, then giving out long contracts to other players like Jones for fun. De Gea is the priority and will be the backbone of any proper success.Still not signed yet? Does this count as De Gea holding the club to ransom? I thought at Manchester United no player is bigger than the team
Completely agree, I'm baffled by how many posters agreed with 'unpopular' opinion on the previous page. Our problem isn't paying lot of money to world class players, our problem is paying too much money to average/shite players. You just need to look at wages likes of Rojo, Sanchez, Jones, Darmian etc take between them to see the problem. De Gea is 1 of our 2 world class players and needs to be paid like one.
Those who are rolling their eyes over wages need to perhaps take a look at what sort of money world class superstars are on, in the other leagues such as Griezmann, Mbappe, Neymar, Ramos. Then you have likes of Coutinho, Bale, Suarez etc. who have made big money moves in recent times who are on mammoth wages as well. De Gea would very easily fetch the wages we are offering if he were to move this summer, and if it were on a free it would easily dwarf what Ramsey would earn at Juventus.
He's 28, which is prime age for a GK. Too many on here have played too much FIFA/FM to worry about players drop as soon as they approach 30s, GKs have much much higher longevity than outfielders so comparison to Rooney, Torres and Sanchez makes little sense. We need to do everything in our power to have him tied down for another 5 years, and if it means he's paid like a superstar then so be it. You can't boast about being biggest club in the world and then baulk at paying your best players.
First Mason Greenwood is the new Owen Hargreaves and then this cracker, you're having a mare at the moment.Still not signed yet? Does this count as De Gea holding the club to ransom? I thought at Manchester United no player is bigger than the team
It could be a three years contract with the option to pull +1 that would give us some margin, like we do with other players. With 4 years in our hands (if everything goes well) there's no place for urgency of any kind.
I don't close the door anyway at him signing for 5 years and doing it well, but it isn't ideal for us on the paper. Anyway if people at the club is fine with that contract then I have nothing more to say. My main point is that I can see De Gea/Mendes pushing hard in negotiations, and I don't want the club to be weak and give everything they ask in resignation or based on fears. We've got solid reasons to remain strong and make them accept our terms, and hopefully this is what we're doing.
Because the truth is nobody knows what's happening indoors and the exact numbers we're talking about, but I guess that if they were reasonable on their demands this would have been done and announced some time ago. So I encourage the club to keep some dignity on this and not sell the soul to the devil, for all the reasons exposed. I'm sure that for all of us our priority is to keep De Gea and all our best players but it has to be on reasonable conditions. Not only because of De Gea, but also for the rest of agents who are watching this game of cards closely and sharpening their axes. The message from the club should be clear.
Neuer at Bayern is on €150,000 per week. De Gea can do one if he wants more than 350,000 a week. Yes he's a phenomenon but keepers can be replaced.
When you appoint short term managers who don't give a rats about the club and only care about expensive quick fixes to boost their own profile... Then you end up with these problems where players start demanding double of what they're worth. Kasper Schmeichel could more than do a job for a few seasons until we find a new 21 year old De Gea somewhere to develop.
When you appoint short term managers who don't give a rats about the club and only care about expensive quick fixes to boost their own profile... Then you end up with these problems where players start demanding double of what they're worth. Kasper Schmeichel could more than do a job for a few seasons until we find a new 21 year old De Gea somewhere to develop.
Pogba, Rashford and Herrera to extend now hopefully.
He's one of the best keepers in the world today if not the best there is, ever! We definitely need to get him to sign the contract and stay with us until he retires. Give him what he wants because he's a tireless performer wanting to do more ever game. After what i saw in the Crystal Palace game where he bangs his knee against the post and returns to his feet, i'm saying he's beyond amazing!
The problem with the first paragraph is that, financially speaking, it'll cost the club more to replace de Gea, and most likely we would get an inferior goalkeeper. Downgrading for an additional cost doesn't seem like a financially sound choice to me.
Yeah but the same things were being said about Sanchez when we signed him. 'Sure we'd have to spend £100 million on transfer fee alone to get Bale so we might as well pay Sanchez the £500,000 a week he demands'
That's a far more dangerous path to go down and it's already showing. Next De Gea wants his red panty pay day. After that there's not a shadow of doubt Raiola will be banging down Ed's door demanding Pogba be the highest earner at the club. Then Rashford and his agent will want it too.
De Gea can go to PSG to get more than the €350,000 a week he wants. Sanchez can do one to China and we should have a strict €350,000 ceiling at the club for our best players otherwise they should be shown the door.
How have you come to that conclusion? Usually a player signs the very nice contract being offered to him if he was happy to stay.
Except that financially makes no sense. He is on his final year of his contract, so we wouldn't be able to get more than 50m from him. Then, we can imagine three scenarios:
a) we go for an okayish keeper with potential like Chelsea did with Kepa. 70m fee + 200k/week, means that over the course of a 5 year contract, we save a grand total of ... 19m pounds (in all likelihood less when you add agent fee and signing on fee), while having a significantly weaker keeper.
b) we go big for Oblak. Something like 100m pounds with a huge salary of 300k/week or so (huge transfers come always with huge salaries). Over 5 years we lose 37m pounds (more likely 50m+ when you add agent and signing fee).
c) we keep Romero and realize that he is not good enough to be first choice within the first half of next season.
In any scenario we are better with keeping De Gea for 350k/week than selling him and buying some other keeper.
Chelsea did the same exercise last summer (though their hand was forced). They spent twice as much on Kepa compared to what they got from Courtuis, despite than Kepa is not half the keeper Courtuis is.
350k/week is an absurd sum of money, but in the end it just 3% of our yearly revenue. We pay roughly half of our revenue in salaries, our best/second best player earning 6% of our total wages is hardly the end of the world.
Even 350k a week is absurd. The Sanchez deal is going to haunt our club for years especially as hes a player that hasnt performed...
Personally I really want David De Gea to stay, but if we lose him based off of madrid or someone else paying more I dont blame him or us. We would need a high quality keeper replacement though, theres few on the level of DDG and they will be hard to get. The only realistic option that isnt even really that realistic would be Oblak
What does this have to do with anything? Any player is allowed to ask for as much money as he can, and the club in return can offer as small offer as they want. No ransom, just pure business. De Gea is not forcing the club to sign the contract, neither the club is doing the same for him. The contract will get signed only if both pairs realize that they are better by staying together.Still not signed yet? Does this count as De Gea holding the club to ransom? I thought at Manchester United no player is bigger than the team
In 2 years he'll be 30 and doesn't have a resale value so that might be a big problem.
How much money would you give for and to Oblak?
He is in double that, having signed his latest contract in 2017. Also Bayern don't have spent players earning 500k/week. When we gave that contract to Sanchez, we essentially gave the same contract to De Gea and Pogba too when the renewal takes place.
In 12 he will be 40 and retired. In 72 years, in all likelihood, he will be dead. I say sell him now.
Good post, and although I agree that 350k+/w is reaching or breaching a financial boundary for De Gea, I have a couple of comments on your assessment on De Gea and other goalkeeper's longevity.
Let me just start out by underlying that confidence is one of the most important variables of any goalkeeper, and with the treatment of Casillas in 2012 and 2015, it is inaccurate to insinuate (if that is what you are meaning?) that he was degrading after reaching his thirties.
Casillas clinched with José (much like Pogba did with José), and subsequently lost his place in Real. Prior to this incident in his career, Casillas had one of the best seasons ever, winning La Liga, the Champions League, the Euros and the IFFHS award for the record breaking fifth time. This was the year he became thirty. When he clinched with José he had been captaining Real for two years, and it was seemingly off pitch circumstances that led to Casillas losing José's trust. And to add to that, this is peculiar, after José had left Real even Andrés Iniesta criticized Mourinho for dropping Casillas out of Real, which tells me it did not revolve around Casillas' quality, but persona. Casillas later reclaimed the role as first keeper under Ancelotti.
So in my opinion there is not sufficient grounds to say that Casillas was degrading. He experienced a massive loss of confidence that would impact any player, but I'd say it would especially hurt goalkeepers. He also had a couple of serious injuries after reaching his thirties, but regained his ability and his starting role. And lastly, his transfer to Porto was highly criticized by fans, and even Xavi. Real fans may elaborate better on his quality in 2015, but if his quality was lacking a little bit I'd say that it was understandable given the injuries and confidence loss during those years, and not a model on what United can expect from De Gea, and how to plan ahead.
You are also stating that Casillas and similar goalkeepers with cat like reflexes lose their abilities over the years. I can't think of any world class goalkeepers that lost their reflex ability in their thirties. Reina did, but was he world class? Van der Sar was a spectacular shot stopper all the way until his retirement (which was not sportly related). Buffon is another one with these feline abilities, and is still playing at top level at 41.
Comparing goalkeepers with forwards is just nonsense mate. Goalkeepers are playing a different sport, and are not relying on their legs in the same manner as outfield players.
Regarding wage policy in United, Woodward basically broke it with the Sanchez transfer. He proved to the players that under special circumstances they are willing to reach far beyond what is normal, and given that goalkeepers are selling for £70m+ these days, De Gea has been given a very strong hand. 300k/w and more is crazy money, and attaining Oblak for £70m could arguably be a better deal, if he gets on a reasonable contract, but at the same time we have the world's best goalkeeper getting into his prime already in the squad.
Ouff, I am happy negotiating with De Gea's crew is not my day-to-day job.
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Agreed. Some serious short term memory in here. Very surprised.
People are ok with him being offered 300k. It is a super awesome offer and it is being given only because De Gea is super high level and also we don't want to lose him. If he was yet another keeper, that kind of money would never have been discussed.
So no one has forgotten anything.
It would be fine if some Real fans could 'referee' this debate, but I remember Casillas playing poorly long before clashing with Mourinho. I remember it happened when he was starting to date his current wife and people was speculating about him being a bit distracted from football.
If we take into account bad performances, Mourinho tendency to favour tall keepers - and players in general, and his girlfriend (now wife) being a journalist and openly talking about the team, you have all the ingredients for what happened next. Surely there's a personal component but he wasn't playing well at that time and his main flaws were there already.
Under Ancelotti he only played the CL games (I don't remember if the Cup also) and even if they won it he had some blunders along the competition, with that goal in the final being at the top of it.
For all his faults, this insecurity has nothing to do with Mourinho. Casillas has been always poor at getting out of the cave and winning those kind of balls. If you add that he started reacting late to shots, losing agility then you have a second tie player. This is why he left for Porto and he's still there nowadays. If it was about confidence he could have regained it in such a poor league and then sign for a better team. Casillas is just a poor keeper since he started losing his main skills and it's as simple as that.
When he was at Real I heard rumours about him not liking the gym much, maybe didn't train enough and lost physicality sooner than he should. You're right about something though, and maybe we should talk about agility and physical conditions instead of pure reflexes, but my point remains the same. Time always comes to hunt keepers, fowards and midfielders and this is why I put all of them in the same list.
GK's tend to last more but every player regardless of position is exposed to lose faculties, hunger or motivation after so many years in the elite. So it's part of our interests to keep them always tense, under permanent analysis and having something to prove, and that's why I believe we should always leave ourselves margins with players in certain stages, to be able to make decisions without being too tied.
If everything goes well then fantastic, but if it doesn't we have the chance to react in some way. If De Gea has confidence on his own abilities for the long term then 3+1 shouldn't be a problem for him. Show us your skills in the coming years and you'll get another generous contract. Easy.
True, all points are valid. Keepers have great longevity, he certainly isn't dropping off in the next 5 years even if he is a reflex keeper. He's the one of two keepers that can genuinely alter results in world football(Oblak is the other) and how much would he cost?
Losing one of the bargains of the century cause of wages is ludicrous given the potential cost of his replacement. I'd rather have defenders who can handle corners than even think about losing him cause he ain't rushing out. The sweeper keeping criticism is bogus IMO. We don't have a line high enough to need him to do that.
People are quick to forget that last season he was so good that he basically created a Mou **** on here by single handedly dragging us to second.
There's someone claiming it might be a mistake to give him a 5 year deal. Some even say we should tell him to take what we're offering or he can go. Pardon me if I think some are forgetting who he is.
De God has had us achieving results we quite frankly don't deserve for eons. Created a **** for Jose by single handedly dragging us to 2nd. Had a mediocre side qualifying for the CL. He's paid back his transfer fee, current wages and then some. His clean sheet records are outrageous considering you don't remember the last time we had a settled high quality back 4. He's spoiled us so much we don't even remember how it is to have a normal great keeper.
After this new 5 year contract will end, he will still be ... well... younger than VDS when he only joined us.
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You must mot have lived through the post-Schmeichel years...
Great insight there, and I get your fear on De Gea's aerial ability, which we all share, but regarding the rest of his abilities, to me, De Gea is on a different level than Casillas. And next to his agility and reflex game, is his mental game, meaning his focus, resetting and strive for bettering himself. These feats are exceptional and a major part of why he is such a great goalkeeper. Therefor, I find it hard imagining De Gea losing focus, but I guess you never know these days.
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Sanchez transfer has been a disaster. Hopefully Dave and the club can find middle ground on the deal.
So much wrong with this post.
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