Van Gaal huge fan of Atletico star, ready to sign him if De Gea leaves

Spanish press are pretty confident that Real Madrid will sign David de Gea in the summer transfer window.

Marca and AS, the two pro-Madrid newspapers, have been covering the saga on a daily basis, where they have tried to project De Gea’s impending move to Madrid as only a matter of time. De Gea has already agreed personal terms with Real Madrid, but Los Blancos have yet to agree a transfer fee with Manchester United.

While general perception among the Spanish media prevails that De Gea will join Real Madrid at some point in the summer, United are trying their best to make life difficult for the La Liga giants by either asking a high transfer fee for the Spanish goal keeper or demanding one of their key players in exchange.

United have registered an interest in Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos which has complicated the matter a bit. Furthermore, the Red Devils are demanding a high transfer fee for De Gea, which Madrid are not willing to meet, given he has only a year left to run down his contract.

Amidst all these, Madrid have allowed club legend and first choice goal keeper Iker Casillas to join Porto, further indicating the club is expecting De Gea to join them any time soon.

Marca reports today that United have asked for both Sergio Ramos and Keylor Navas in exchanged for David De Gea.

United don’t expect Real to accept that (and they won’t) but it’s another attempt to show they won’t be bullied or make it easy for Los Blancos. The underlying tone from Marca, which has been the case for a while, is that it’s still a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’ De Gea will join Real Madrid. 

Real Madrid are low on keepers with Casillas out and Navas injured. Kiko Casilla is set to arrive first. Madrid hope a bid of €6/7m plus sending Marco Asensio on loan will be enough to get it over the line. Real own 50% of his economic rights.

The arrival of Casilla doesn’t signal the end of Real’s pursuit for David De Gea though. In that case, United will move for Atletico Madrid’s highly rated goal keeper Jan Oblak. 

AS reports that Van Gaal is a huge fan of the Atletico keeper (the dutchman believes Oblak has more potential than De Gea (Oblak 22, De Gea 24), and that he is willing to invest the €35m from De Gea’s sale in signing the Slovenian international.