MOURINHO EYES NEW LONG-TERM DE GEA DEAL
Manchester United will take the option to extend David De Gea’s contract by a further year and Jose Mourinho is unsurprisingly keen to tie down our star goalkeeper for the long term.
De Gea’s current four-year deal is due to end next summer but a clause in it will allow the Reds to extend his stay for another 12 months, which Mourinho expects to be a formality.
But the manager is looking further ahead than that and hopes the club can agree a new contract for the Spaniard, who has again been in imperious form this season to illustrate why many fans, team-mates and pundits feel he is the best in the world.
“It's obvious that we are not going to let the option [to extend his deal] disappear,” Mourinho told reporters at his press conference on Friday.
“A goalkeeper like he is, at a club that wants to be better and better and better – we are not going to let that option go away. We are going to try.
“[Executive vice-chairman] Mr Woodward is not on holiday – he barely has holidays – and of course he is going to try to give him a contract that keeps him here for much more than the option that, of course, we are going to execute.”
Mourinho was asked if talks were already under way with the 27-year-old, who has been at Old Trafford since 2011 and is closing in on 300 appearances for the club.
“I don't know,” the boss replied. “I just trust the board and the work they do. I don't negotiate players; I don't discuss numbers and contracts.
“I just say what is obvious and any one of you would say the same: David is to keep.”