Manchester United will not make a decision on David de Gea’s future until the winter and are yet to decide which out-of-contract players to keep. United manager Erik ten Hag has started De Gea in all 13 games so far this season, with Dean Henderson on a season-long loan at Premier League basement side Nottingham Forest, while fellow goalie Tom Heaton could be released next year. Martin Dubravka, recruited on loan from Newcastle on transfer deadline day, is the third choice.
Erik Ten Hag said: “We didn’t make a decision on him but what I can say is that I am really happy with David de Gea as a keeper. His first two performances of the season were not his best performances but after you see he brings us a lot for the defensive department, gives stability. And, as a person, I like him, I can really cooperate with him really well but first we go to the winter and then we will talk about how deal with such situations. In this moment we only think about perfoming, we have a lot of games to go, so I don’t want to get that interfered by talks, we have to focus on football and performances, not on negotiating. That’s what we have to do now.”
The likelihood is United will release injury-prone centre-backs Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe, rather than extending their deals by another year, but academy defenders Ethan Laird and Teden Mengi could be retained. When asked whether delaying decisions on players’ futures would keep them motivated,
Erik Ten Hag replied: “That is something for the head and some players get motivated when you play for a contract. But it is not why we handle it like this. We just want to restore Man United, we want to develop the squad, develop the team and bring everything to a better level. We work on a way of play and also on the culture and we need quality players who are highly motivated. Such players we are looking for and luckily we have them in the squad. So I am happy with the squad and the motivation they all have. The cooperation is quite good.”
