David De Gea could see his wages increased by more than 600% by Manchester United after the club opened contract extension talks with the goalkeeper, just 10 days after his £29m move to Real Madrid fell through.
De Gea looked set to join Real on the Spanish transfer deadline day, only for a delay in paperwork on the Spaniard’s part see the move collapse at the final minute. It’s known that United manager Louis van Gaal is looking to reintegrate De Gea into his first-team plans, which could see the Spaniard start his first game of the season when United host Liverpool this Saturday.
But it was the sight of De Gea’s agent, Jorge Mendes, as well as members of his family arriving at United’s Carrington training base on Thursday that has triggered talk of discussions between the two parties to extend a deal.
Manchester United vs Liverpool combined XI
At present, De Gea has just one year remaining on his £35,000-a-week deal, but United are believed to be willing to increase that six-fold and more, with the proposed offer set to take De Gea to around £200,000-a-week that will also be backdated to last year when negotiations initially began.
According to TalkSPORT, the deal will see De Gea commit his future to United for another five years, although as expected it will include a buy-out clause of €50m (£36.5m) that would be well within Real’s spending power should they renew their interest.
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Mendes seen at Carrington training to hold De Gea talks
Mendes, who is also responsible for negotiating the contracts of Jose Mourinho, Radamel Falcao and Cristiano Ronaldo among others, arrived in Manchester yesterday in a bid to smooth relations between the club and the player. While executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was not in attendance, talks did begin with Mendes and it’s added that De Gea could sign a new deal within 72 hours should discussions progress without any further issues.
David De Gea's agent Jorge Mendes
Van Gaal is due to speak later today ahead of the weekend clash with Liverpool in which he is expected to clarify why the De Gea sale fell through from the United side of things.
Van Gaal could also be probed about his alleged comments about new £36.3m signing Anthony Martial, with the Dutchman reported by The Times to have admitted that the most expensive teenager in the history of the game cost “a ridiculous amount of money” – something which United have refused to comment on.
There could also be difficult questions regarding an apparent row with his players that led to senior figures Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick to approach the manager in a bid to ease growing tensions that are said to have raised from the sale of former defender Rafael and the prominence given to video analyst Max Keppers.
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