Could this be Man Utd’s best transfer window in years? De Gea has gone!

Manchester United have finally got rid of David De Gea and some fans are utterly chuffed. Could this save Harry Maguire?

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Thank f*** De Gea has gone
Thankfully, finally, it has been a long time coming, could this transfer window be one of Man Utd’s best for several years?

Forget that they have only so far signed Mason Mount, who is hardly a bad signing, a striker will come in and of course, Utd will finally get a keeper who can actually do more than the utmost basics of the game. Getting rid of De Gea is what has been needed for so many years that I have lost count, I would even argue that he is one of Fergie’s worst signings and somehow managed to stick around year after year.

Guaranteed if Fergie had still been manager then De Gea would have been off a long time ago. If the club had stood by Jose instead of pandering to Pogba, then Jose would have got rid of him and certainly wouldn’t have made him the highest paid keeper in the world, meaning that Utd were stuck with him (thanks Ole)

His ridiculous statement that his media team put out, what world is he living in? Apparently, achieved a lot since he was brought to the club? Like what exactly? It’s been a successful period since he came? Compared to who? Everton? He’s been part of the big problem why Utd have had the worst period for 30 years.

1 PL 10 years ago
1 FA cup
2 League cups

Utd fans are now counting community shield as a trophy when it suits them so I’m not having that, he also isn’t having anything to do with the Europa League under Jose as he didn’t participate in it.

Sky Sports are saying he made 17 errors leading to goals in his entire time at the club which is laughable. You could count 17 errors in his last two seasons alone. That’s the thing with a keeper, they only look at errors as the ones that slip through their fingers, instead of goals being conceded because the bloke was glued to his line. I’m struggling to remember a single time in his 12 years where he came for a cross under any sort of pressure and caught it? Struggling to remember any time where he calmed the game down and relieved pressure with adding extra pressure. Struggling to remember any goal kick where Utd don’t look like conceding within 10 seconds.

Utd’s defence was an unholy mess last season, don’t let the stats fool you as anyone who knows anything about the game could see it, they didn’t concede as many not because of De Gea, but because they had two World Cup winning CBs for most of it, two World Cup winners who were basically relying on each other because De Gea never helped them. Take either one of those out and it’s back to normality. Utd were under so much pressure in most games and it was down to shots being blocked, parking a bus, some good tackles and bad finishing.

Harry Maguire looks a totally different player when he has Pickford behind him, yes Pickford who gets a lot of unfair criticism from the same fans who say Dave is class. We have even seen Maguire gesturing to De Gea on numerous occasions to talk because the bloke is mute back there or so far back that he can’t be heard. He has relied on his reflexes from day one, no denying that he pulls off some incredible saves, most of them though (not all of them) are down to bad finishing where the ball is close enough to get a hand to. He literally stands there and for someone who likes to save feet first, he can’t use those same feet give a decent pass.

Lindelöf is not a bad defender, but for some reason he turns into a complete fool when in front of De Gea! Could it be, just possibly, maybe, that the big problem has been David De Gea, so afraid to come off his line that the defence has to sit on the edge of the box because they know that any ball over the top and De Gea aint coming for it? Could it be that any situation that leaves De Gea in a one v one, that they all know he is going to curl up so small, so afraid to get touched that a goal is inevitable, unless it’s bad finishing or he gets lucky with his reflexes. Should he get touched and oh my, he almost starts crying, what he did against Arsenal was unforgivable, faking an injury as he thought the game would stop.

Could it be that Maguire and Lindelöf have some sort of brain damage because they have had to head the ball away so often rather than waiting for De Gea to actually move and come for the ball?

Could it be that after 30 minutes the defence is so shattered whilst De Gea looks like he’s having a cuppa Tea as if to say, anything off my line ain’t my job.

Could it be that Utd’s defence didn’t concede as many because Varane and Martinez along with Casemiro decided to basically ignore that De Gea was even there and do it all themselves?

Having your keeper afraid to leave his line just adds more and more pressure onto the team, and oh boy, when he does get a little bit of Dutch courage and tries to leave it, we all know what is going to happen, Seville.

I hope Maguire doesn’t leave, sure he isn’t captain material (thanks Ole) but with a confident, arrogant, loud keeper back there, I do believe Maguire may well prove some people wrong. Granted he wont start but Varane is injury prone so he’ll get games to prove himself. Maybe he’ll be able to confidently hold a high line without fearing his keeper is so far back he could be mistaken for a fan in the stand?

I saw a Poll where they asked where David De Gea ranks against Schmeichel and Van De Saar, sorry but that is ridiculous. Arguably Schmeichel was, no questions asked, the best in the world for a period, De Gea hasn’t even been the best in the league, strange how Schmeichel’s last season was probably his worst (his words not mine) yet he was still better than De Gea ever was. And Edwin, who was just a complete monster back there, very sad to hear he is unwell. To put De Gea against those 2 is typical of this era of football, forgetting just how good Utd used to be. I would rate De Gea below Barthez and probably on a par with Leighton (again pulled off some worldies but then Palace and well…) and Sealy/Bosnich, ok, I’m stretching it with Bosnich.

As for the club showing such disrespect to him, again utter nonsense. They are not employees like were are in our jobs, they are their own entity, paid into a company so they don’t pay tax, earn more in a week than most earn in 10 years, are looked after in every aspect of their life and sign a contract for a specific number of years to guarantee their financial future. Then when their time is up, people say it’s disrespectful because there was no leaving party? What ever.

So is this transfer window lining up to be one of Utd’s the best for several years? We’ll find out when they finally sign a competent keeper. You could almost cherry pick any PL keeper to replace him and do a better job.
Hugo

READ: Man Utd goalkeepers ranked: De Gea in top three behind Champions League winners…

…While I recognise De Gea’s wonderful achievements at the club, particularly in the worst seasons after Ferguson left, Professor (Dr) David Achanfuo Yeboah’s contention that it is better the devil you know with regards to him and Onana is wilfully myopic, just as his sentimental letters near the end of the Ronaldo fiasco were. He’s thinking about what the guy was, not what he is now.

The game has simply moved on – De Gea never learned to command his box at set-pieces, his decision-making and accuracy with the ball at his feet is awful, and crucially, his confidence seemed shot in the second half of the season. There were a number of glaring errors, from Everton in the FA Cup to Sevilla and the FA Cup final. Onana will be an upgrade in every way. Both Klopp and Guardiola were ruthless once they realised the limitations of the keepers they inherited. Ten Hag needed to do similar to reach the standards they’ve set.
Pablo, MUFC, Dublin

Now is the summer of ‘this content’
Back in the day when non-World Cup / Euros season ended, us fans would content ourselves with Wimbledon and The Open, maybe cricket for those who like their sport five days long with breaks for lunch and tea. As July rolled into August we would hear tales of a second-string top league team battling to a 4-4 draw away to Ebbsfleet Reserves. But now, even when there is no major international tournament, the season never ends, an inevitable by-product of the 24/7 news cycle, social media and the transfer window.

Now I like football coverage, I especially like what you guys do in looking at transfers or spending and presenting it in a retrospective context, best buys, worst buys, etc etc, enough to keep us all going before the Prediction Period starts in every major outlet.

What I don’t like is where before we craved some content and the outlets weren’t there for it, now we have so many outlets, websites, news channels, social media that there is a push to create content to fill the gaps, 90 second instagram clips of players walking into the club’s reception area to start pre-season training, don’t get me wrong I like a cheesy grin and a few fist-bumps as much as the next guy but I can absolutely live without it, as I suspect most of us could. As for kit launches and the not-in-any-way-scripted-banterfests that are the “behind the scenes” footage from these launches make me almost double up from cringe. Is there a cohort of people who crave this nonsense, I imagine there is otherwise why bother, but please may the universe plot a path for me where I can continue to avoid such people.

The less said about transfer-reveal clips the better, just tell me how much he cost and then show me a picture of him looking sheepish behind a desk signing a contract while the Chief Executive gurns in satisfaction.

Roll on the actual football…
Robert, Kilkenny

What’s a completed pass?
Slim pickings in the mailbox this morning so I thought I’d write in with a question that has been bothering me far too much for far too long. What exactly constitutes an accurate/completed pass?

I’ll use Liverpool as an example:

TAA has the ball on the right side and sends one of his raking cross-field balls to Robertson on the other side. There are various possible outcomes:

1) The ball reaches Robertson, either to his feet or nicely in his path
2) The cross is a bit off and Robertson has to run/sprint 20 yards back towards his own goal to collect the ball/keep it in play
3) Gakpo sticks his foot out and controls the ball (even tho clearly meant for Robertson)
4) The ball is very wayward and Van Dijk ends up collecting it

Number 1 is clearly an accurate pass, but which of the others, if any, would also count as accurate?

Two random musings:

Even as a Liverpool fan, I find it a bit sad that after 12 years (some of which he was brilliant) De Gea is leaving Utd through the side door with no send off. He deserves something after all that time.

Can people please stop using the line ”for me, Clive”. It momentarily confuses me every time.

Now, back to silly season and which random, new midfielder we’re linked with today.
Clive, LFC

Nostalgia anyone?
I was wondering if anybody else has heard of ‘Operazione Nostalgia’ going on in Italy?

It started as Facebook group eight years ago about the glory years of Italian football. Then fans started having meetings where they would wear classic football shirts. Actual footballers like Aldair started turning in the following years. Now they have matches where 90’s and early 2000’s stars turn up to play games in packed stadiums. Del Piero and Totti captained the teams this year.

Considering you have rival fans from all over Italy there is never any trouble either.

Do you think anything like this could ever happen in England or would Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira just get into a punch up along with all the fans?
Morris

Cottage industry
Fulham fans signing up for dodgy boxes for a few months?

You wouldn’t blame them would you?
Graham (Premier League/FA/TV need to get their heads out of their backsides)

READ: Which Premier League teams are on TV the most? Newcastle loved by Sky Sports, Fulham forgotten