The long drawn out negotiations for David de Gea may be reaching their end. Louis Van Gaal is tired of playing ‘hard-ball’ and has requested that the Old Trafford club close the deal with Real Madrid as soon as possible. The Dutch coach publicly hinted at these intentions last Wednesday (“We have a situation on our hands that is not good for the player, not good for us and not good for the club where the player wants to move to” he stated) and from information that AS has been made aware of, Van Gaal has privately asked that the United sporting director’s to 'unlock' the negotiations for the players move to the Spanish capital.
De Gea’s errors against PSG have convinced Van Gaal that it makes little sense to retain De Gea in Manchester against the players will. The Spanish goalkeeper is clearly overwhelmed by the situation and even a day after returning from the US tour, De Gea’s was still clearly affected by circumstances regarding his frustrated move to Real Madrid.
Van Gaal’s change of heart is a step forward in the possibility of the matter being renegotiated but it is by no means definitive. There are those at the club determined to retain their goalkeeper. Club executive, vice-president, Ed Woodward, wants Manchester United to regain its status as one of Europe’s biggest football clubs and feels that selling the club’s best player to a direct rival is not the best way forward. The club saw how selling Cristiano and Beckham in the past aided Real Madrid to grow in a sporting capacity.
Madrid, have strengthened their goal keeping position and Rafa Benítez is more than happy with Casilla and Keylor Navas. If United decided to hold out then Madrid are prepared to wait a season and secure De Gea´s services next year on a free transfer. Real Madrid will however, have to pay the goalkeeper a compensation fee of 10 million euro as they promised the 24 year old in the latter part of the 2014-15 season, that he would be awarded a contract at the Bernabéu.
Local paper, The Manchester Evening News, carried out a survey and the findings suggested that the Old Trafford faithful feel it’s better option to sell De Gea now, rather than let him go on a free-transfer next season.