Sir Alex made some high profile blunders in the transfer market during his long reign at Manchester United. Berbatov, Veron and Nani come immediately to mind. But, more often than not, he bought gems young and old.
A couple of years back, when David De Gea was still a spindly kid, questions were regularly being asked about whether the Spaniard would end up being seen as another failed signing. He had no command of his area and opposing teams were chucking in high balls left, right and centre, in the knowledge that at least one would be mismanaged over the 90 minutes.
But De Gea has since gone on to prove the doubters wrong. You’d have to go a long way to find anyone who now thinks that De Gea is anything other than a top Fergie buy. Now 23 De Gea has developed physically and become, for our money, the best keeper in The Premier League. The Manchester United keeper would certainly be our first choice between the sticks if we had the pick of the keepers in the English league.
Physically he is now able to dominate his area. And his shot stopping ability is second to none. He’s incredibly agile and quick witted – many times already this season he’s kept his team in games – but the most remarkable attribute is his ability to hold onto the ball. We often describe him as like a cat with super glue on his mits.
We hope for Manchester United’s sake that he stays at the club for the rest of his career. But, with the two biggest clubs in Spain in need of new keepers before long, we worry that The Spaniard might have his head turned.
Coming from Atletico he may not fancy moving to Real Madrid. But, with Victor Valdes 32 today and with rumours flying around about his future, you wonder whether Barcelona might soon come calling.
Manchester United could do a lot worse than to offer the guy a new improved deal right now. He’s going to be regarded as the world number 1 before long and Manchester United need to build their team with him between the sticks. Let’s see the genius in action.
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