De Gea | Signs for Fiorentina

afrocentricity said:
Redcafe told me he was finished, that he was destined for earlier retirement and that taking a year out was career suicide............

cretins
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I didn't understand the outrage on here that he took his time and apparently wasn't even sure about continuing his playing career...

...but don't get it twisted, he is "finished".

No top team will hire him as their number 1 keeper, due to his deficiencies: useless with his feet, zero press resistance, can't command his box, can't claim crosses or just generally get off his line, and for the last 4-5 years of his United career, his shot-stopping wasn't consistent either, and a far cry from what he showed in the 5 years prior to that. Had the occasional howler in him as well.

I wish him the best of luck in Fiorentina, but don't be surprised if it turns out to be an awful move. His shortcomings could easily be just as big of an issue for Fiorentina as they would be for a bigger club.
 
I hope it goes better than Joe Hart's torrid time in Italy for sure even if I do think he's done
 
Rojofiam said:
I didn't understand the outrage on here that he took his time and apparently wasn't even sure about continuing his playing career...

...but don't get it twisted, he is "finished".

No top team will hire him as their number 1 keeper, due to his deficiencies: useless with his feet, zero press resistance, can't command his box, can't claim crosses or just generally get off his line, and for the last 4-5 years of his United career, his shot-stopping wasn't consistent either, and a far cry from what he showed in the 5 years prior to that. Had the occasional howler in him as well.

I wish him the best of luck in Fiorentina, but don't be surprised if it turns out to be an awful move. His shortcomings could easily be just as big of an issue for Fiorentina as they would be for a bigger club.
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Whilst I agree with most of what you have said it is still pretty much a certainty that we would have made the knock out stage of the Champions League last season if we still had him.
 
Gandalf said:
Whilst I agree with most of what you have said it is still pretty much a certainty that we would have made the knock out stage of the Champions League last season if we still had him.
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I agree that our CL exit is mostly on Onana. He made crucial mistakes in both Galatasaray games and in Copenhagen too. My impression is that we were tactically very well setup in those two away games, and only left with a single combined point from them, instead what should've been six points IMO.

At the same time, though, Onana is a much better keeper for any top team, not just United, than De Gea will ever be at this point. The howlers have to go away, or at least happen with a significantly lesser frequency, no doubts about that, but even being an average at best shot-stopper is enough for Onana to shine in a possession-heavy, dominant team. Pep never binned Ederson for a reason, and Arteta also signed both Raya and Ramsdale for a reason.

All the "shortcomings" I listed for De Gea are traits Onana excels at, and in the current state of modern football, they're all as important attributes to possess as shot-stopping is. Arguably most of them are even more important these days.
 
Signs for Fiorentina
It’s weird to see him in a non-United kit. It’s been a while. More than 13 years to be exact.



 
Nice! Happy for him. Yes he declined but also feel like he's been disrespected a bit lately. Though his salary demands I'd imagine were also disproportionate.
 
Nice to see him not retiring yet and taking up a new challenge. I wish him well.
 
So happy to see him back in the game and what a place to resume his footballing career. Absolute legend for us, 7th highest appearances of all time for the club. He deserves more love.
 
Is Terracciano leaving them then? Seems an odd signing otherwise. Good luck to him either way.
 
Good luck to him. Will turn 34 in November so potentially could continue his career for another 4-5 years even. Joe Hart retired few months ago at 37 after spells in Italy and Scotland.
 
Thanks DDG, all the best! Really happy for him. One of my favorite players in Man Utd. He was unbelievable for us at his peak.
 
Best of luck to him. He was great for us for many years. Superb professional, and always very respectful and loyal to United. Nothing but sincere gratitude for him
 
Has Onana's performance & EtH's tactics in 23/24 justified the latter getting rid of DDG & buying the former for £50m?
 
Really pleased for him. Incredibly beautiful city, passionate football culture and what a place to restart his journey if he wants to focus on getting his legacy polished.

Love the looks of him in that violet jersey, I've got a man crush on that jersey and the color.

I think he'll be rusty initially and might need some time to be up to speed, hope he gets that patience and opportunities.

All the best Dave! Forza Firenze!
 
A legend, people are quick to forget just.how.good he was for.us in mostly terrible teams. Committed the best part of his career to us when he could have achieved more elsewhere
 
Fantastic new for our Dave!

Wish him all the best!

Also, absolutely nothing wrong taking time off.
 
Varun1 said:
Has Onana's performance & EtH's tactics in 23/24 justified the latter getting rid of DDG & buying the former for £50m?
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Really don’t think we’ll know until we see our first choice defence and new number 6 all playing together. I was one of Onana’s biggest critics last season, but you’re generally not going to see the benefit of a ball playing goal keeper if all he does is pass it straight to Harry Maguire.
 
2 man midfield said:
Really don’t think we’ll know until we see our first choice defence and new number 6 all playing together. I was one of Onana’s biggest critics last season, but you’re generally not going to see the benefit of a ball playing goal keeper if all he does is pass it straight to Harry Maguire.
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But DDG played under similar conditions, i.e., utterly inept defense.
I was against spending 50m on Onana, I thought the money could be better spent elsewhere or on a better GK, but am genuinely interested in hearing people's opinion.
 
Varun1 said:
But DDG played under similar conditions, i.e., utterly inept defense.
I was against spending 50m on Onana, I thought the money could be better spent elsewhere or on a better GK, but am genuinely interested in hearing people's opinion.
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This is true, but then we know De Gea never had great distribution. I think it’s probably the entire reason we bought Onana, we just haven’t seen it yet. 50m was very overpriced, but that’s the cost of letting the manager decide ‘no, it has to be this guy specifically’, as well as the fact he was coming off a great season with Inter who made the CL final.

I think you could probably find a few keepers with his skill set for a lot less money, but they just didn’t play for Ajax.
 
GL21 said:
A legend, people are quick to forget just.how.good he was for.us in mostly terrible teams. Committed the best part of his career to us when he could have achieved more elsewhere
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I think the opposite to be honest. People seem to rate him at a higher level than he ever reached for us.

He was an elite shot stopper from around 2013 to 2020 - but a weak all round goalkeeper. The same weaknesses in dealing with crosses and dominating his area that cost us the league in 2012, remained weaknesses throughout his career here. In the last couple of seasons, those issues were compounded by the introduction of regular, serious mistakes.

He was afforded the wages and squad status of a leader, without ever demonstrating an ounce of leadership from the back.

Him being player of the season a number of times is a bigger reflection on the poor state of affairs at the club during his time than it was on his actual ability.
 
Glad to see him back in the game. I am curious to see what his level is like after a year out of football
 
He had less claimed crossed than second choice goalkeepers. He was notoriously bad in that regard.

However, I wish him and his family nothing but the best, and I'm glad he is back.
 
Thank god he can stop being referred to as ex or former Manchester United goalkeeper and we can move on. No doubt when he cheats on his wife in Florence they'll refer to him as "ex Manchester United player De Gea" even though he's gone since June 2023........
 
I'm so genuinely stoked for him. Regardless of how it ended, he's a Manchester United legend and up there with Schmeichel and Van der Sar for me.

Can't be forgetting just how much he carried us through the wilderness at times.

All the luck at Fiorentina Big Dave.
 
Very happy he made his way back to football and at a good level. Florence is a beautiful place, I only visited last year myself so I could definitely imagine something worse than a year or more in that city. I'll be wishing him the best of luck.
 
2 man midfield said:
Really don’t think we’ll know until we see our first choice defence and new number 6 all playing together. I was one of Onana’s biggest critics last season, but you’re generally not going to see the benefit of a ball playing goal keeper if all he does is pass it straight to Harry Maguire.
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What has Harry Maguire or ball playing ability got to do with Onana being a shit GK?
 
Kostov said:
What has Harry Maguire or ball playing ability got to do with Onana being a shit GK?
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I never said he wasn’t a shit gk. Just that the strengths we bought him for, we haven’t been able to play to them yet.
 
Good luck to him. Hope he gets the chance to come back for a proper farewell at some point.
 
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