Man United Keep or Dump: Big decisions around Maguire, Martial, De Gea and more

Despite a bounce-back season under new boss Erik ten Hag that saw them finish third in the Premier League, win the Carabao Cup and reach the Europa League semifinals, Manchester United face several challenges this season.

First and foremost, this team is still in “build mode,” as many of the pieces aren’t natural fits for the style of football Ten Hag wants to play. (It’s also the style that got him the job.) Second, there remains uncertainty over whether the club will be sold or whether it’ll take on new investment (or whether the Glazer family will simply maintain the status quo). As a result, budgets remain relatively tight (by United standards anyway).

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United have budgeted for a summer net spend of roughly £120 million ($153m,) plus whatever they can raise from outgoing players. They’ve already spent nearly half of that on signing Mason Mount from Chelsea, and they’ll probably want to bring in a striker, a goalkeeper and possibly help in midfield as well. That will require some careful moves in the summer.

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of stories over the coming weeks applying the same “who to keep, who to extend and who to move on” approach to all the top clubs in the Premier League and Europe. You can find our Manchester City edition here, our Arsenal edition here , our Liverpool edition here and Chelsea can be found here.

Goalkeepers

David DE GEA (32 years old, contract expired in 2023)

OGDEN: “United had the option to extend his contract by one year, but they chose not to because he was on massive wages — only Cristiano Ronaldo earned more in the past few seasons — and instead tried to get him to agree to a short-term extension, albeit on less money. That didn’t work out, so now he’s gone and I think it’s time to move on.

“I don’t care how many Golden Gloves he wins. He makes a ton of mistakes, and he’s not suited to Ten Hag.”

MARCOTTI: “I think you need to turn this into a positive. Let De Gea test the waters. If it’s true that they wanted him to take a 50% pay cut to stay and he turned them down … well, that’s around £8m a year. Very few teams in Europe can afford to pay a keeper that, and those who can aren’t looking for a keeper, let alone De Gea.

“Use this time to look for a No. 1, and if it doesn’t work out, I think you can always go back to him. … Unless he goes to Saudi Arabia, he won’t find a club that will pay him that sort of money.”

Verdict: Released, is a free agent