David De Gea signs new four year deal
De Gea(middle left) pictured with some team-mates at United's annual UNICEF Gala Dinner.
David De Gea committed his future to Manchester United as he signed a new four deal at the club, keeping him until 2018.
The Spanish shot-stopper has been in fine form for United so far this season, and with interest gathering from PSG and Real Madrid, United wanted to tied De Gea down to a new contract as soon as possible to try and warn those clubs off the 24 year old. De Gea was very happy in signing the new deal, posting on his official twitter page that he was delighted to be staying at the club for 'another four years'.
de Gea joined Manchester United in 2011 from Atletico Madrid for an estimated fee of 17.8 million pounds. The young keeper was tasked to fill the boots of retired goalkeeper Edwin van der Saar and in his first season in the red of Manchester, he was hit with a lot of abuse by both rival fans and Manchester United fans alike for some mistakes he had made due to his young age. However, de Gea started to improve, putting in a memorable display in United's 8-2 victory against Arsenal, saving a van Persie penalty and denying the Dutch forward another couple of goals which gave his side the determination to push on and run out winners. He ended his first season well, getting another 8 clean sheets to make for a decent first season in the Barclays Premier League.
In his next season, de Gea began to flourish making some tremendous saves early on in the season, including a inspiration display against rivals Manchester City, keeping out many shots from both Carlos Tevez and David Silva. His best display at Manchester United was in the UEFA Champions League game against Real Madrid where he made a world class save with his foot to help his side achieve a 1-1 draw against the Spanish giants.
De Gea's reaction to signing a new deal on his official twitter page.
Louis van Gaal also expressed his delight in De Gea's decision to sign a new deal, speaking in his most recent press conference how happy he is that the Spaniard wants to stay at the club for the foreseeable future despite interest gathering from some of Europe's top clubs, saying the following;
"David is a quality goalkeeper, as seen not just in this season, but the previous seasons. He has improved a lot since he joined the club and this new contract shows not only our intent to keep him here for many years, but his intent to stay with us and help us achieve success in these upcoming years. He fully deserves his international call-ups as he is a magnificent goalkeeper. He keeps improving everyday and is always determined to succeed, which shows how serious he is about his career. We are delighted that he wants to stay and hopefully we can keep him here for the rest of his career".
With de Gea's new contract, back-up goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard looks set to move away from the club to seek first team football as van Gaal shows no intent to play the Dane as he has called up Sam Johnstone to the first team as van Gaal looks to the future, as he revealed that he prefers to work with younger players to help them grow and for-fill their potential. Johnstone had a great season on loan at Doncaster and could become the clubs cup goalkeeper very soon.