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Tuesday, 1 September 2015
The De Gea Saga: Starring Man United and Featuring Real Madrid
Call me a conspiracy theoretical mongoose...this is what I believe to be true. How many clubs are really happy to willingly let their star player go? Especially a club that is of the stature of Man United? And when you also add to the mix that Di Maria, who once was the most expensive Premiership player, had left for PSG?
This is the classic, he said, she said scenario. It's about who you want to believe because both sides do make a good case. To know who is telling the truth, you would need to have been at the scene of the crime to assess the misdemeanors that took place in this latest episode of CSI: Old Trafford. That really is not what the focus should be on, I am man who seeks to view the bigger picture as therein is where the truth lies.
Did United really want to let De Gea go?
No. That is the simple cold-blooded answer. Even though the Spaniard expressed his desire (or girlfriend's desire) to hitch a ride to Madrid, United were not willing to just happily open the train door for him and wave goodbye with a stolen handkerchief. Man United were going to fight all the way, and Madrid had to have realized this. After all, they were going for one of the best players and a pretty big reason as to why they made it into the top four. It was just like the Bale deal....but with a little difference....Tottenham are not the kind of club that Manchester United are.
I have come under some intense scrutiny in the way that I have refused to give United the tag of "big club." I
still defend that notion, but in the sense of them attracting big names, and the top players wanting to play for them. But you can't erase history. United have a far richer history than Spurs and their fanbase completely dwarfs theirs as well. So with the Bale deal...that was always going to be as sweet as six potatoes in how smoothly it would go down. Spurs could not resist all that cheddar which they eventually spent like a mindless drunkard who never finished high school. Man United are a different club. If De Gea was going, they wanted it done on their terms, and wanted to dictate how it would go down with Madrid following their every beat.
The problem here is we have two very famous clubs with huge egos to keep intact. Madrid was not going to be treated like a dog, and neither were United. In the end, it all fell apart and I think if there is one party to blame, it has to be Madrid. Because I have given this a bit more thought, and I do still feel that United may have intentionally botched this up, but if anybody wants something bad enough then they will do all they can to get it. If Madrid wanted De Gea bad enough, they would have sorted this out a lot earlier and got it done. Even if it was on the deadline day, they would have made sure that the deal was done. They can talk about how United messed things up and they did everything right and did all they could, but they are Madrid....if they REALLY wanted De Gea...they would have gotten him.
De Gea just has to get his mind right. He has the international break to come to terms with still being at United, and he just has to accept. It still creates a very uneasy atmosphere. Romero has done well so far, maybe a mistake or two, but he's acquitted himself well in this sort of supporting role. Will Van Gaal put De Gea straight back into the team? Does he trust him to give his best? After all, the reason why one of the best players of last season has yet to play a single minute is because Van Gaal did not feel his head was right, because it was all assumed that he was going to Madrid. But with De Gea believing he was going and wanting so desperately to go and being frozen out because it seemed a foregone conclusion, can he really get his mind back in the United framework?
He is a professional and gets paid more than enough for that not to bother him. If you get paid, you do the work, that's how the world works. There is however the human aspect and we're not machines. We have emotions and feelings, and I doubt we will see De Gea perform as well as he did last year when he was completely a Man United player whereas now....he's still in limbo.
HH