The future of David de Gea with Manchester United was the most note worthy topic discussed at manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Friday news conference. Solskjaer met the media today ahead of his side’s home Premier League fixture against Southampton tomorrow.
Unfortunately, S0lskjaer was unable to provide any new insight into the hottest current United topic- status of the De Gea contract extension talks.
“There are no updates from me,” Solskjaer told a news conference on Friday. “The club and David are in dialogue. Hopefully they’ll agree. It’s out of my hands, but I’m sure we’ll do what we can.”
De Gea has won the club’s player of the year award in four of the last five seasons, and he’s a very strong candidate for claiming the plaudit again this term. However, when he first arrived at United from Atletico Madrid, things were very different for him.
The Madrid native struggled at first, but Sir Alex Ferguson believed in him, and favored the Spaniard over other shot-stoppers who were probably better than De Gea at the time. Solskjaer made remarks conveying his belief that De Gea should remember the club’s loyalty to him (and with that reciprocate the commitment).
“The club really showed how much they wanted him back in the day when Eric (Steele) and the gaffer found him. There were probably better keepers there at that time,” Solskjaer said, but the belief the manager showed in him, given the criticism he got, paid dividends.”
“Hopefully they will agree because David is the best goalkeeper in the world.”
It’s hard to argue with Solskjaer, when he says that De Gea is the best keeper in the world. However, he’s not getting paid on a level on par with the world’s best keepers, and that’s why we’re currently at an impasse in contraction negotiations.
Manchester United vs Southampton FC FYIs
Kick-off: Saturday March 2, Old Trafford, 3pm (BST), 9am (CST)
United Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Injury Report for both sides: go to this link
Odds via Odds Checker: United 1/2, Draw 7/2, Southampton 15/2
Google Result Probability: Manchester United win 65%, Draw 21%, Southampton win 14%
Prediction: United 2, Southampton 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.