EXCLUSIVE: Ex-United Manager ‘I’d Sell De Gea’ | Manchester United News

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-United Manager ‘I’d Sell De Gea’

Former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty has had his say on the protracted saga between the club, David De Gea and Real Madrid, stating that under his management, he would have already made his decision and sanctioned the transfer.

‘If I were in charge, David De Gea would be gone by now,’ Docherty exclusively told RetroUnited.com. ‘Because, at the end of the year, you get nothing for him. No matter how much money you’ve got, we’re not talking about thirty or forty quid, you’re talking thirty or forty million and that makes a big difference.

De Gea was dropped for United’s game against Tottenham Hotspur last week and Louis van Gaal publicly attributed the decision to an uncertainty about the player’s frame of mind. There have been suggestions since that De Gea insisted he was happy to play, but Docherty feels that once the doubt had been placed, the decision should have been taken to sell him.

‘You’re better having a great player who’s unhappy than one who’s in a great mood all week but can’t play,’ admitted Docherty. ‘But you don’t want a player who’s going to sell you down the swanny. Especially one who had made it clear he doesn’t want to stay. It’s a risk that United cannot afford in more ways than one. You’ve got to look at the pros and cons. The first question you ask is ‘Can we start the season with him?’ And if the answer is no, like it was for Louis van Gaal, then you have to sell him.’

‘The boy’s done well but the player isn’t in the right frame of mind and right now he’s calling the shots. Or should I say that it even seems like his girlfriend is – she doesn’t like Manchester and she’s making that plainly obvious as well. Both the club and the player could have handled this a bit better.’

While Docherty believes that United won’t necessarily struggle to replace David De Gea, that player isn’t currently at Old Trafford. ‘We have Valdes who couldn’t get into the Barcelona team and he’s the most senior of a bunch of goalkeepers who haven’t been starters in recent years,’ he says. ‘There are plenty of goalkeepers out there who are good enough to come in. But we don’t have them yet.’

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