Manchester United's David de Gea reportedly wants to gain parity with the club's top earners as wrangling over a new contract offer continues and the Spanish goalkeeper could be set to earn a whopping £350,000-per-week.
The 27-year-old is currently on £200,000-a-week after United handed him a new deal when a proposed move to Real Madrid fell through in 2015. That current deal is set to expire next summer and United are desperate not to lose him on a free. Understandably, they are keen to keep hold of arguably their most important player, although it may cost them as The Sun are reporting that De Gea wants to join Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez as the top earners at Old Trafford.
United have been forced into action as De Gea was again linked with Real Madrid earlier this summer, although the La Liga giants have since signed Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea and it seems as if the United keeper will stay with Jose Mourinho for the foreseeable future.
The defensive style of football that Mourinho adopts perhaps suits De Gea as he isn't a 'sweeper-keeper' in the mould of the likes of Ederson or Alisson Becker. He is a wonderful shot-stopper though and he has certainly been kept busy in recent times.
No Premier League keeper kept more clean sheets than De Gea's 18 last season and he ranked fifth for the most saves in the top-flight during the 2017/18 campaign - the four keepers to make more saves than David de Gea were Jack Butland (relegated with Stoke), Lukasz Fabianski (relegated with Swansea), Mat Ryan (finished 15th with Brighton) and Jordan Pickford (8th with Everton).
He has had far more work to do than his counterparts at other top clubs in England as the 3.9 shots on target per game that United faced last season was the most of any of the team's that finished in the top-five of the league table. It is an interesting statistic as Mourinho is known for his relatively unadventurous style of play and yet United are conceding more shots on their goal than the other top teams.
De Gea endured a difficult summer as rumours about his future swirled and he produced the worst performance of any goalkeeper at a World Cup in 52 years. He conceded six goals form the seven shots he faced at the World Cup with Spain and it was part of a wider period of inconsistent form that saw him concede 10 goals from 14 shots for club and country.
The new season with Manchester United hardly started in the most convincing of fashion as he kept a clean sheet at the fourth time of asking when the Red Devils beat a limp Burnley side 2-0 on Sunday.
The result will have done plenty for the confidence of De Gea and it will have helped to strengthen his position further as United bid to tie down a player who was an integral reason for them finishing second in the Premier League last season. Since the start of 2017/18 campaign, De Gea (123) has made more than double the amount of saves as Manchester City's Ederson (63) and he could be in for another busy year if Mourinho persists with the likes of Chris Smalling, Ander Herrera et al in defence.
Give that man a pay rise!
