Solskjaer believes new De Gea deal would be sign of intent from United
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes tying David De Gea down to a new deal will be an important statement of intent as Manchester United look to challenge for trophies again.The Old Trafford giants struggles since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson could have been a whole lot worse were it not for the 28-year-old goalkeeper.De Geas fine form has led to regular speculation about his future since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2011, with only paperwork preventing him returning to Spain with Real Madrid four years ago.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is determined to hang on to David De Gea (Mark Kerton/PA)The shot-stopper knuckled down and signed an improved deal at United, but that contract expires at the end of the season and talks over an extension have dragged.There was growing confidence over the summer, both publicly and behind the scenes, that a deal was close and manager Solskjaer remains determined to keep De Gea in the north west.I think you need to ask David and the club (why the deal had not been sorted yet), he said.Ive obviously not been involved in all the discussions, but Im very or pretty confident that well get this sorted. Davids never, ever said anything else to me than he loves this club, he wants to stay here and hes had a fantastic time, so lets hope we just get it over the line.Juventus and Paris St Germain are among those to have been linked with a move for De Gea.Well, were always aware of whats happening around in the world, Solskjaer said when asked about contingency plans.But my focus and the clubs focus is to ensure and convince him to stay. He can see what were doing and he knows what were doing.We want players here, the best ones, and the ones we want most of the time stay. Theres not many we want to keep that we dont manage to keep.Solskjaer has faith in his back-up keepers, including Sergio Romero (John Walton/PA)I have got two very good back-up keepers, with Sergio (Romero) and Lee (Grant), Dean (Henderson) is playing at Sheff United, so the goalkeeping department is in good health.And, as I said, I am confident that we will manage to convince David that here is the future for him and it is a successful future, its a club that wants to get back to winning trophies.Put to Solskjaer that a new deal for De Gea is also a statement as United do not want other clubs thinking their best players want to leave, he added: Yeah, definitely. Because we have gotten used to top keepers here.Youve got (Peter) Schmeichel, De Gea we want the best ones and (Edwin) van der Sar. Edwins getting too old now, he did OK in the (Vincent Kompany testimonial) game.And, no, for me we want to build a winning team again, thats challenging for trophies.Leicesters Jamie Vardy will come up against United on Saturday (Tim Goode/PA)Solskjaer remains confident in what were doing in that process and United will look to end a three-match winless streak when Leicester visit on Saturday.The Red Devils boss underlined the importance of scoring the goals that reflect their play, but De Gea will need to be alert to keep the Foxes at bay and will be desperate to impress after his gaffe as their last home match ended in a late defeat to Crystal Palace.I think hes had a fantastic time here, Solskjaer added.Yeah, of course, whenever he concedes a goal, its headlines that he should have saved (it).Whenever we lose a game weve lost one game since July 1st and it sounds like were really struggling, but thats just the way it is at Man Utd and you have to handle it.You have to be resilient, youve got to have robust confidence and hes fine. I dont worry about him at all.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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