Sports
David De Gea to pen huge £200k a week deal
David De Gea will sign a new £200,000-a- week contract with Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho praising the Spaniard and his agent for not creating a “war” over his future.
With Paul Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola in conflict with Mourinho over the Frenchman’s troubles at Old Trafford, the United boss made a point of saluting De Gea and his agent Jorge Mendes.
That’s for handling a situation that never escalated into a stand-off despite persistent Real Madrid pressure.
De Gea is on the brink of a new long-term deal with United delighted they rebuffed repeated Madrid attempts to land the Spain keeper before eventually giving up this summer and signing Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois.
Mourinho said: “David is a Manchester United player, he will sign a new contract as soon as possible, he likes it here.
“We love him, we want him to stay. He wants to stay.
“I think it was a collective situation involving the player, the agent and Manchester United. The agent didn’t create a war to try to achieve his objectives.
“He respected the club. He respected the player. The player was always keen to stay and happy to stay.
“The club understood how important he was and was always trying to give him the conditions to make him happy, so credit to all three.”
The world record transfer fee for a keeper was broken twice this summr with Chelsea paying Athltico Bilbao £71.6 million for Kepa Arrizabalaga after Liverpool had paid Roma £67million for Brazilian Alisson.
Mourinho admits he wouldn’t swap De Gea for anyone – but was coy about putting a value on the 27-year-old who is rated the best in the world.
Asked what De Gea is worth Mourinho said: “Zero. Because when a player is not in the market, his value is zero.
“Is David the best in the world? My goalkeeper is always the best goalkeeper in the world. I said that to my goalkeeper when I was coaching Uniao Leiria, a small club in Portugal.
“My goalkeeper is always the best in the world, but you understand what I mean. I don’t want to be called disrespectful or arrogant and say that Courtois is not good or Manuel Neuer is not good. There are so many.”
De Gea’s mistake against Portugal in the World Cup when he allowed a Cristiano Ronaldo shot to evade his grasp led to criticism for the Spanish star.
But Mourinho defended him saying: “David played four matches in the World Cup and he made one mistake. With that mistake, his team didn’t lose. He made that error against Portugal for one of Cristiano’s goals.
“It was a technical mistake, but Spain equalised. They drew that game, won the next and drew the next and finished first in the group.
“Then they played Russia in the fourth game. They drew and lost on penalties. So for four matches and 390 minutes, David De Gea made one mistake and his team was not even punished by that mistake.
“All the other guys because they play for Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, they were protected.
“But David knew perfectly he was not responsible for Spain being knocked out. He came back normal and in the States, he started working absolutely normal and here we have David.”
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