Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea won his club’s player of the year award for the third consecutive season, but insists that this was his best season to date. Having shaken off the disappointment of his dream move to his hometown club falling through on transfer deadline day, in a tedious soap opera saga that lasted all summer, De Gea went on to be in top form all season long.
Back in early June, the United and Spain #1 insisted that Jose Mourinho “can build a great team” at Old Trafford.
Yesterday, he took that optimism a step further upon being asked if United are capable of challenging for the Premier League this term. De Gea told Press Association Sport:
“Of course, of course. I think we signed top players, really good players. We are Manchester United and we want to fight for everything.”
“I feel for the fans, for the club and the players [that something exciting is coming] — you feel like [it is] a new era. I think the club is really strong now. The players, we want to everything and hopefully we can do it.”
He was also asked about how the transition to Jose Mourinho is going early on.
“He is a strong character,” De Gea said. “He is a winner — he is one of the best managers in the world and we feel it. We are really comfortable with him.
“He is a strong character but he makes jokes. It is good for us to laugh and I think he is a really good manager.”
Back on June 2nd, De Gea was asked by Marca what he thought of The Special One’s appointment, De Gea said: “To speak of Jose Mourinho is to talk about a winning coach and that is United’s philosophy and mine.”
“With that idea in mind, I’m certain we can build a great team. I welcome him.”
De Gea made similarly optimistic and forward-thinking comments on the eve of the Red Devils FA Cup final triumph at Wembley Stadium. He believes that win could be a prelude to bigger and better things for the club.
“If we win the FA Cup, it will be a good season. We’ve had a couple of difficult seasons, so we are really determined to win the cup. And winning it could provide us with that extra belief and motivation to hopefully go on and achieve great things,” he said at the time.
“In the Premier League, all teams can slip up against all kinds of opposition,” De Gea said. “It’s a very tough league, but it’s true we have lost games that we shouldn’t have, against teams that on paper we should have been beating.”
“But then we have won plenty of the very difficult games, too, and in that sense it has been a strange season.”
Obviously, De Gea is saying all the right things that he should say in this situation, but the results are still the results. At Old Trafford, a top four finish is the absolute bare minimum standard, as the club has been spending money like water on acquiring new players.
Yet United still ended up on the outside looking in with Europe.
They finished tied with their “noisy neighbors” Manchester City on points, but 16 goals back on scoring differential, a stat that consigned them to the Europa League.
Hearing the comments that De Gea made on May 20th, you can’t help but think of another FA Cup final, 26 years ago, when United also beat Crystal Palace.
The victory then propelled United to unprecedented glory and the transcendent heights of the Sir Alex Ferguson era. De Gea is no doubt hoping that history repeats itself here.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye edition.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram