Manchester United News – £24m Bid To Be Made For Spaniard
Spanish giants, Real Madrid are reportedly preparing a £24m bid to unsettle Manchester United’s first choice goalkeeper, David De Gea and probably lure him back to Spain. The 23-year-old De Gea has been on an impressive form since last season and is reportedly a candidate for Real Madrid’s boss Carlo Ancelotti, to replace Iker Casillas, the veteran goalkeeper, who the manager has reportedly lost patience with. De Gea is being sought after according to Daily Express, as a long term replacement for Casillas, who himself admitted he would love to play abroad, away from Madrid, sometime soon. However, the reports say Real Madrid are well aware of the fact that their bid would fall short of Manchester United’s valuation of the player they signed from Atletico Madrid for £18m in 2011. The £24m bid is reportedly just to unsettle the player and test Manchester United’s resolve to keep the player. Manchester United on the other hand are said to be preparing a 5-year contract extension offer of £120, 000-a-week to the player.
For Madrid, it is the primary aim of replacing Iker Casillas that drives them in the direction of De Gea. 33-year-old goalkeeper, Iker Casillas fell out of favour with Jose Mourinho, the then Real Madrid manager and he became a fringe player. This went on under Carlo Ancelotti, during the Italian’s first season as Real Madrid manager, but now, the goal keeper has returned as number 1 for Real Madrid despite the signing on Keylor Navas, the Costa Rican, whose 2014 FIFA world Cup’s performance was second to none. Casillas played second fiddle to Diego Lopez under the management of Jose Mourinho and much of last season under Carlo Ancelotti. At the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the Spanish number one with his teammates suffered a shameful exit, with the player conceding 7 goals from 2 matches.
The Carlo Ancelotti led Real Madrid is also reported to be keeping an eye on the situation with Petr Cech, the Chelsea former first choice goalkeeper, who lost his place to young Thibaut Courtois. Petr Cech has never been a second keeper at club level since joining Chelsea from Rennes in 2004 and doesn’t seem to be taking his demotion to 2nd goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, lightly. The young goalkeeper, Courtois, broke into the Chelsea first team displacing Czech Republic goal keeper and Chelsea number 1, Petr Cech, this season. He had previously been on loan from Chelsea for 3 seasons at Atletico Madrid of Spain and his string of performances for the La Liga Champions in the domestic League in Spain and in the UEFA Champions League has earned him the number one choice between the sticks for Chelsea.
Despite the watchfulness of Real Madrid on the situation of the Chelsea goalkeeper, the desire to have the younger, David De Gea on the long run remains paramount. Madrid would attempt to capitalize on the well documented desire of Spanish players, who play abroad, to come back home and ply their trades with either Barcelona or Real Madrid as seen with players like Gerrard Pique, who moved from Manchester United to Barcelona and Cesc Fabregas, who also moved to Barcelona despite being the Arsenal captain.
The case of De Gea is even more threatening to Manchester United considering the fact that the player hails from Madrid and developed at Atletico Madrid. De Gea’s contract expires at the end of the season but Manchester United rather than accept a bigger and better bid from Real Madrid would prefer to extend the player’s contract.