In a parallel universe where time stood still, David de Gea might have been playing in the Community Shield on Sunday. The club that he joined in the summer of 2011 were serial winners, having lifted the English Premier League (EPL) four times in the previous five seasons. The last of those, months before De Gea signed on the dotted line at Old Trafford was title No. 19, taking them past Liverpool and into first place when it came to league titles won.
In his first two seasons, De Gea played 80 times for Sir Alex Ferguson, winning title No. 20 in 2012-13 as the legendary gaffer signed off. Since then, Old Trafford has seen a slow slide into irrelevance, to such an extent that not one pundit is mentioning them as title contenders ahead of the upcoming season. The Fiorentina side that De Gea will play for on Saturday at least have UEFA Conference League football to look forward to. For United, beaten in the Europa League final last May, the passports won’t even be needed this season.
De Gea left, or was turfed out, in the summer of 2023 after Erik ten Hag decided United needed to move in another direction. De Gea was willing to take a significant pay cut – he was on 375,000 pounds-a-week at the time – to extend his contract, but ten Hag had already opted for change. For half a decade and more, football had been moving towards goalkeepers who were comfortable with passing that ball out from the back, and De Gea’s considerable skill set didn’t include that capability.
He had still won the Golden Glove for most clean sheets in his last season, just as he had under Jose Mourinho back in 2017-18. But the alarm bells were also apparent. A disastrous 4-0 rout at Brentford early in ten Hag’s tenure had exposed De Gea’s limitations, and Golden Glove or not, his shot-stopping was also not what it once was. The FA Cup final loss to Manchester City seemed to make up ten Hag’s mind, and Andre Onana was drafted in as a high-profile replacement.
While De Gea spent 13 months out of the game before enjoying an excellent season with Fiorentina, Onana’s erratic displays have been a source of endless frustration for both coaches and fans. Capable of the most stunning saves, he has also accumulated a blooper reel that would embarrass a non-league keeper.
De Gea, the last link to the glory years, left Old Trafford without a proper goodbye. It was the least he deserved after 545 appearances for the club – six more than the legendary Alex Stepney. That will be remedied this weekend when he is sure to get a rapturous reception from the Stretford End. He has already met Ferguson, and there has been some cheeky online banter with Bruno Fernandes ahead of the game.
“I turned down offers from England because after spending so many years at a club like United, you feel like you don’t want to play for another club in England,” said De Gea in an interview, explaining the sabbatical he took. “I’ve spent my whole life there; it’s the club that shaped me and allowed me to have a wonderful career. I felt it was time to rest and come back even stronger.”
But in a league where the likes of Alisson, Ederson and David Raya have set the standard in recent seasons, ten Hag was probably not wrong to let De Gea go. Football has moved on, and shot-stopping is not the only criteria scouts look at. It’s another matter that Onana turned out to be the wrong replacement.
For both player and club, Saturday will represent closure. De Gea can stop looking back and enjoy the last phase of his career, while United and their fans must fervently hope that Ruben Amorim can take the club towards where it used to be when the Spaniard was signed.
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