Manchester United have been urged to fix one of Erik ten Hag’s previous mistakes by re-signing one of the players he sold during his time at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag, now manager of Bayer Leverkusen, spent two and a half years in charge at Manchester United before being sacked in October 2024.
There were some brilliant highs under the Dutchman, including the 2024 FA Cup final victory over Manchester City and the Carabao Cup triumph in 2023.
But there were also plenty of low moments, including Ten Hag’s work in the transfer market in terms of signings and sales. He was afforded a lot of power under the previous regime in this aspect.
Looking back on a lot of the deals at the time, there are not many successes while a lot of them were questionable at the time and remain so.
United urged to re-sign De Gea
One of the questionable decisions Ten Hag made was to allow David de Gea to leave the club at the end of his contract in 2023 and replace him with the £47 million goalkeeper André Onana.
Onana has failed to deliver since that point and many fans want him to be sold. Former United defender Clayton Blackmore believes that the club should be looking to bring De Gea back to Old Trafford.
“If possible United should bring back de Gea. I’d bring him back. I played with Peter Schmeichel and Neville Southall and I think de Gea is the best I’ve seen,” the 60-year-old said.
“Towards the end, he was making more mistakes but United were declining as a team and he had to do more work. When you’re forced to do more work you make more mistakes.
“United pushed him out because he wasn’t good with the ball at his feet but his passing when he’s not under pressure was good. I had no problems with de Gea.
“Ten Hag wanted him out and wanted to bring his own man in and I think it was a mistake. He won the golden glove that year and had 15 clean sheets. Why would you get rid of him?”
De Gea transfer unlikely but will get Old Trafford return
While Blackmore is definitely not the only person who would love to see De Gea back in a United shirt, it seems like something that’s extremely unlikely to happen.
Even though goalkeepers usually play for longer periods, the Spaniard is 34 years old, eight years old than any signing made under INEOS so far.
He also recently signed a new three-year contract at Fiorentina, who would definitely not want to see him leave the club.
Read More: David de Gea ‘is pushing Fiorentina’ to sign ex-Manchester United teammate after Ruben Amorim praise
Despite this, De Gea is still set to finally get his Old Trafford reunion this summer, with the Reds set to face the Italian outfit in their final pre-season friendly at the Theatre of Dreams.
For the goalkeeper, who made 545 appearances for the club and never really got to have a proper goodbye to the fans, this will undoubtably be a special moment.
Clayton Blackmore was speaking to AceOdds.com
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