David de Gea‘s £375,000-a-week Manchester United contract expires at midnight on Friday. Only Cristiano Ronaldo has earned a greater salary at Old Trafford than the former Spain No. 1 since he signed his deal in 2019, and United’s attempts to negotiate a vastly reduced pay packet in order to retain De Gea’s services suggests they don’t feel they’ve got value for money.
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As the club appears to be enduring yet another summer of frustration in the transfer market — July is about to start and United have only just agreed on one deal, to sign Mason Mount from Chelsea — the De Gea situation (it has now become a saga, in typical United fashion) sums up why United find themselves in this predicament. It is a tale of excess, in terms of player wages, contract lengths and transfer fees, that has left manager Erik ten Hag needing to offload as many as six players in order to raise the funds required to add the three priority signings.
Sources have told ESPN that without a resolution to the ongoing takeover process at the club, it could take United three years to untangle the mess that Ten Hag and football director John Murtough inherited from the previous regime, headed by former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
