Sir Alex Ferguson has praised David de Gea’s early-season form as outstanding, and slammed the media for allegedly conspiring to see the 18.3 million pounds goalkeeper fail in English football.
De Gea, the 20-year-old who signed from Atletico Madrid in the summer, will return to Manchester United’s team to face Chelsea in the Premier League after his understudy Anders Lindegaard impressed in the Champions League draw with Benfica in midweek, The Telegraph reports.
Following Lindegaard’s impressive performance, Kelly Cates, daughter of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, asked Ferguson whether De Gea’s position was under threat. He responded with a bad-tempered attack on what he described as a “stupid” question.
Now the United manager claims forces in the press are deliberately trying to undermine De Gea.
“There’s obviously an agenda on De Gea and we experienced that with the press again on Wednesday night after the game in Benfica. For some reason they are desperate for the boy to fail and I don’t understand it. He will be back in the team against Chelsea absolutely �" that was always the arrangement,” the paper quoted Ferguson, as saying.
“It’s nothing to do with his age, they never did that with Petr Cech when he joined Chelsea. He’s 20 and he’s coming into a country where he doesn’t know the culture. There’s a lot he’s had to deal with and he’s showing a lot of composure about the whole thing. He doesn’t speak English, he’s been looking for a house and now found one, he’s been learning to drive in England. He’s not been flapping about in the goalmouth, he’s been really composed. He’s outstanding,” Ferguson added.
Meanwhile, Cech, who will face De Gea for the first time today, has said that any goalkeeper arriving from Spain will need time to adapt.
