We all know how good David De Gea is at this point.
Jesse Lingard’s scoring touch fired Manchester United to a crucial win over rivals Arsenal on Saturday, but it was De Gea who attracted the most effusive praise. The Spanish stopper produced a herculean display at the Emirates to ensure United travelled back to Manchester with all three points, leaving onlookers drooling at his shot-stopping abilities.
De Gea was one of Alex Ferguson’s last great signings, snapping him up from Atletico Madrid in 2011. Although he endured a shaky start to life in England, he has gone on to establish himself as one of the world’s top keepers since. Ferguson was right to keep the faith with him and, it turns out, the manager’s interest in De Gea was so strong that he even missed a United game to scout him.
Back in September 2010, Fergie put his trusted lieutenant Mike Phelan in charge of first-team duties for the League Cup clash with Scunthorpe United as he travelled to Spain to personally run the rule over De Gea, who was in action for Atletico against Valencia.
Former United goalkeeping coach Eric Steele was the man who initially recommended De Gea to Ferguson and has revealed the lengths the Scot went to in order to make sure he was the right man to replace Edwin van der Sar, who retired in 2011.
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“I joined United in 2008 and, from that moment, we needed to be ready for the day van der Sar retired,” Steele told the Daily Mail .
“I was convinced that a 19-year-old de Gea was the right man to replaced him. I showed a three-minute DVD compilation to Sir Alex and then we went to watch him play for Atletico Madrid at Valencia on the night United played Scunthorpe in the League Cup.
“Sir Alex knew he was the right signing within 65 minutes.”
65 minutes. That’s all it took. Skipping the Scunthorpe game – which United won 5-2 anyway – turned out to be one of Fergie’s final masterstrokes, with De Gea having done enough to now be regarded as highly as Peter Schmeichel.
“He deserves to be mentioned in the same breathe as Schmeichel,” said Steele. “Believe me, he is only going to get better.”
It’s difficult to imagine him getting any better to be honest, but we’ll take Steele’s word for it. He was right about De Gea in the first place after all.
