Manchester United are ‘not happy with David de Gea’, according to The Daily Record’s Duncan Castles.
Speaking on the Transfer Window Podcast, Castles revealed that the club has made a mistake in tying de Gea to a lucrative long-term contract and would be glad to offload the Spaniard should an offer come along for him.
‘United are not happy with the performance of De Gea post signing that record contract’ Castles claims.
‘They basically put themselves in the position where they had to pay him far, far more money than any other club was prepared to pay him. So they’ve saddled themselves.’
‘It’s a hugely expensive contract for a player whose performances have declined since he signed that contract.’
‘My understanding is that there’s a thought within the camp that were someone to offer De Gea a contract and the opportunity to move elsewhere the strategic thing to do would be to take that wage off their wage bill and sell him.’
However, Castles conceded that ‘It’s going to be very difficult to find a buyer for de Gea because of the coronavirus situation.’
If the Red Devils were to offload de Gea, his natural successor would be 23-year-old Dean Henderson, who has excelled while on loan at Sheffield United this season. But Castles also claims that the Old Trafford management are not sure whether it would be too soon to give the Englishman the job.
‘They’re not happy with de Gea [but] they’re not convinced Henderson’s ready to be starting goalkeeper for Manchester United’ he continued.
‘He’s very talented and has a lot of qualities but it’s one thing playing for a mid table club .. and another playing for a club that aspires to win titles.’
‘If they can’t sell de Gea and they have to keep him … then you bring Henderson back and use him to press de Gea and get better performances from him.’
‘But … Henderson isn’t interested in being a backup, he believes he’s better than de Gea and believes he deserves to be the starter.’
Castles comes to the conclusion that United therefore should sign another backup for De Gea in the shape of Ajax’s Andre Onana, who was reported to be the subject of a bid from Old Trafford last summer, and allow Henderson another season on loan.
