He has been heavily criticized for Manchester United’s lack of recent transfer activity but Ed Woodward earned his stripes Monday with the David de Gea deal. United have sold de Gea to Real Madrid for £29 million (39.6m) plus goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
The deal makes all parties happy. De Gea and his agent get the big money move they have been agitating for all summer, and Madrid get the goalkeeper they wanted after pushing Iker Casillas out of the door earlier this summer.
As for United, Woodward can claim a world record fee for a goalkepper. Buffon cost €51.6m and United will argue that £29 million pus Navas makes de Gea the most expensive goalkeeper over. Which is remarkable considering Madrid could have signed him for free on a a pre-contract in January.
United’s goalkeeping situation has been a nightmare this season as Sergio Romero showed against Swansea why he is not a No.1.
While nobody is saying that Navas is a good as de Gea, de Gea after all is one of the two best goalkeepers in the world, the Costa Rica No.1 suits van Gaal’s style of football as he is very good with his feet. And as the Squawka data shows, his shot stopping ability is not much different than de Gea’s.
What do you think of the deal? Just glad its over or would you rather have kept de Gea?
