De Gea has no ball to kick, this is the 'tears of the times'

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David De Gea, who is Manchester United's legendary goalkeeper, is "homeless" at the golden age of 32. This is his personal tragedy, and it also reflects the turn of the times.

It was the ember of Manchester United's Premier League championship 10 years ago, but in the process of countless reconstructions that went back to the same place, it became the most redundant? After winning the Premier League's "Golden Glove", De Gea, who still has a lot of courage to spare, fell into a situation where he was abandoned by the Red Devils at the age of 32 and almost no one cared about him. After leaving the team in the summer and missing the job until November, the "duck father" who is already a little interested in it, where to go next?

The double line was abandoned

Goalkeeper attendance record in team history (545 games), the highest number of clean sheets in team history and the fourth highest clean sheet in the Premier League (147 games), 8 major and small titles, 5 selections in the PFA Team of the Year, 4 selections in the team Player of the Year, 2 Premier League "Golden Glove" winners (most recently in 2022-23), plus the 32-year-old goalkeeper's golden age, and many hardware superimposed, does De Gea deserve a contract extension?

Manchester United chose the most popular negotiation method: first renew, then repent, and finally terminated - after De Gea initialed the pen, Manchester United felt deceived and re-issued a lower salary renewal conditions, for De Gea, as the father of the team, and considered himself still world-class, to backtrack, tantamount to humiliation. On July 8, the two parties officially broke up.

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In his farewell statement, David De Gea could not say anything bad: "Manchester United will always remain in my heart, this club has shaped me and will never be separated from me. But anyone with a discerning eye can see that De Gea, who can start transfer negotiations in the winter window, has to wait until the contract expires, and without him, Manchester United is almost his only option. Although not only did he have to discount his annual salary, but he also had to give up the main force, it didn't seem to be enough to shake De Gea's loyalty and love.

However, how high the "duck father" was praised by the fans before, and now how hard it falls: in the second match against Sevilla in the quarterfinals of the Europa League last season, De Gea and Maguire staged a stadium version of "Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick", and the two "conspired" to send the home team the first goal, and his mistake at the end of the game made En-Nesyri happy to eat cake. In the final fourth-place race of the league, De Gea made Manchester United fans stunned again: in the face of Benrahma's shot with neither strength nor angle, the apparently inattentive De Gea leaked the ball into the net, and the Spaniard's fourth mistake of the season led to the conceded goal, and he was tied with Lloris for the top goalkeeper in the Premier League. As for the FA Cup final, it was almost an early announcement of De Gea's departure, and in the face of Gundogan's world wave, De Gea, who watched the ball go into the net, made the Red Devils fall into a sinkhole forced to chase points from the beginning.

Seeing this, Danny Murphy, a famous Liverpool-born legend, saw the excitement not a big deal: "If you have the ambition to win the league next season, if you want to compete with Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, then it's very simple, you need a new goalkeeper. Keane is quite representative of the radicals: "He's not going to stay on the bench at Manchester United, he's won some individual awards, but what's the point? What matters is how the team has achieved. He has made too many mistakes over the years, and a few years ago he was planning to leave Manchester United for Real Madrid. ”

Eight months before he was abandoned by Manchester United, De Gea had already experienced that the tea had not left. As early as Enrique's selection of the 55-man squad for the World Cup of the Spanish national team, De Gea was no longer among them, but what was even more heartbreaking was that the then president of the Football Association, Rubiales, sent a text message to De Gea that did not look like an explanation, and was almost publicly executed: "David, thank you for your contribution to the national team all the time, and I congratulate you on finally making the decision you have been considering." I was told you were going to leave the national team. And the person concerned has never expressed the idea of saying goodbye to the national team on any occasion. But De Gea's communication with the national team is no longer the black humor that broke out in the countdown to the World Cup, and earlier, Enrique took the initiative to call Manchester United's goalkeeper and said that he would not take him to the World Cup, but over and over again, his Enrique only had one explanation: "technical reasons".

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In the days of succeeding Casillas, De Gea's actual performance and fame are completely incomparable, and the 2018 World Cup has become his lingering slot: he was shot on target and conceded 6 goals in 7 of 4 games, and the save success rate was just over 14%; And his last start for the national team in 2020 gave Ukraine another upset in the UEFA Nations League. At the time, Roberto Moreno, who was acting on behalf of Enrique, still had faith in De Gea, but when Enrique returned from his family affairs, he did not hesitate to classify De Gea as a thing of the past. After all, Unai Simon, Roberto Sanchez, and Raya with better footwork are all more on the national team, and they also need to add a Kepa who is gradually regaining his form.

Refluxers

To be fair, despite last season's mixed reputation, the defence was almost the most qualified part of the team, and De Gea was even better in many moments: the Red Devils conceded the third fewest goals of 20 teams, De Gea conceded just 1.13 goals per game, and a 70 per cent save success rate, which is the only one in the Premier League.

There is no harm if there is no comparison, and the British media have compared De Gea's last five Premier League games with Onana's first five, the Cameroon goalkeeper has only one clean sheet, and the save success rate is nearly 15% lower, and the pass success rate that should be a strong point, Onana is only 68%, while De Gea is a surprise 74%.

Despite the low-level mistakes, De Gea has always been flawed when it comes to goal-line reactions. However, under the general trend of the Premier League's "version change", he should be the most reliable part of the team, and he has always been unable to extricate himself from the rumors of leaving. Ten Hag did not force the Spaniard to submit to the same situation as he did with Cristiano Ronaldo, but when it comes to the future of the "No.1", he always talks about him. De Gea, who was beaten by Brentford in the opening stage of the Premier League last season and was helpless from the net four times, was able to see his alienation from the new system. In contrast, Onana, who calmly controlled the ball in the face of Manchester City's high pressing in the Champions League final, and could even be the starting point of Inter Milan's attack, not only has a long-standing teacher-student friendship with Ten Hag, but it is also reasonable to replace the Spaniard.

Passing out of breath is a turning point in the life that any veteran will have to face sooner or later, but for De Gea, his lack of anger does not come from a decline in form, but a misfit in the style of play. And this kind of struggle has accompanied De Gea for almost his entire career. At the beginning of joining Manchester United, his slender figure always made fans sweat in the face of high balls, and he also looked less confident in the face of penalty kicks. However, it is widely recognized that he has perfect goal-line skills and often changes his life in desperate situations. Compared to the world-class saves that flash from time to time, none of his flaws seem to be irrelevant. Before winning the Europa League in 2017, De Gea had always been judged in more positive ways than negatively.

Under Mourinho, who emphasizes low-post defense, the perfectly matched De Gea can almost speak for the goal-line goalkeeper, but when the pass-and-control philosophy pervades the Premier League, De Gea, who is incompatible with the trend of the times, is more and more at odds with the giants. Alisson and Ederson, who are better at using their feet but also have frequent mistakes in basic skills, have become the new top of the Premier League goalkeeper world, while at the same time, Joe Hart, Szczesny, Mignolet and others who are similar to De Gea have lost their main positions one after another.

What stimulates the nerves of Manchester United fans even more is that in the past 10 years, the team still gave De Gea a weekly salary of 375,000 pounds, and the goalkeeper's identity as the "working emperor" is destined to be put on the table every time De Gea makes a mistake. The sharp contrast also made the introverted De Gea more and more lost under high pressure, and the wind comment of "desperate De Gea" was soon annihilated by more frequent and more costly low-level mistakes, especially in the era of short videos, De Gea, who "broke the circle" from time to time and encountered group ridicule, although he can accept the gap from the main force to the substitute, but for Manchester United, the long pain is really not as good as the short pain.

Leaving young?

Just a week before the breakup with Manchester United, De Gea and his 37-year-old girlfriend Edulni held a wedding, ending a 13-year relationship. The latter is a well-known Spanish singer and actor, and the two have been in love for even longer than De Gea's Manchester United career, and Eduarney in front of the castle is radiant, but De Gea has no smile on his face. It is true that the two of them, who are both good nuggets in their respective fields, have long achieved financial freedom beyond the reach of ordinary people, but for De Gea, who still has the strength to fight, the 4 months of leisure is really unexpected.

In fact, De Gea is not going nowhere to go this summer. At the beginning of August, when Courtois almost said goodbye to the season early due to a torn cruciate ligament, Real Madrid's recruitment radar once again focused on the prey of eight years ago. At that time, a failure of the fax machine caused the deal to be timed, and Kelo Navas replaced David De Gea as one of the key contributors to the Champions League trifecta. But now, all the Galactic Battleship needs is a parasol that can cope with the famine. And compatriot Kepa, who has also experienced the ups and downs between the main team and the substitutes, and whose salary and mentality are more in line with Real Madrid's requirements, finally took the lead. Ironically, it was four years after De Gea missed Real Madrid that the Basque goalkeeper entered Real Madrid's sights, but his choice was also the Premier League, but he completed the return earlier due to Real Madrid's "liking the new and hating the old". After Manuel Neuer is waiting to return and substitute goalkeeper Zommer has moved to Inter Milan, Bayern's choice is to temporarily correct the second goalkeeper Ulreich, to be precise, they do not seem to consider the presence of De Gea.

After missing out on the Bernabeu, De Gea got close to Betis, who also considered saving De Gea after a five-goal defeat to Real Madrid and an injury to goalkeeper Rui Silva. However, the maximum salary in the Green and White team is only 120,000 euros for Fekir and has been tightened by the salary cap for two consecutive seasons, which is far from De Gea's psychological price; Similar problems have happened to Valencia, not to mention that Singapore Capital's intentions are well known, and starting goalkeeper Mamardashvili is also one of the few newcomers in this team who can sell for a high price. As for the distant Saudi Arabia and even North America, it is completely out of De Gea's considerations, and he has never been employed in his career, and the bottom line is to stay in the five major leagues, rather than resign himself to his fate and fade out of the mainstream vision.

So far, De Gea's next home seems to be uncared for, even if his No.1 at Manchester United is still vacant. The Guardian and other media outlets have been telling the story that the Spaniard could retire if he had not received an offer from a major club's main goalkeeper. As if in response to this rumour, De Gea posted a video of his training in early September, and the Spanish goalkeeper who kept his form alone sweated profusely, and the training subjects included not only large exercises such as hurdles and push-ups, but also a variety of balls under his feet - this was once De Gea's biggest shortcoming. Although he still didn't say a word in training, silence was better than silence at this time. Under social media, the sighs are endless. "The winner of the Golden Glove Award, but no one signed him. It's so unbelievable! "Such a good goalkeeper should not be without a club, it's crazy!" "Why hasn't this guy joined any club yet?"

yes, why?

This article was written by Yang Jian

This article originally appeared in the 876th issue of Football Weekly

Issue date: 2023.10.10

The picture comes from the Internet

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