David De Gea has an uncertain future at Manchester United as his contract is up this summer without significant progress being made on a new deal. The two parties are in talks over a contract extension, but the 32-year-old will be free to leave in a few days if an agreement can’t be reached.
Erik ten Hag is lining up potential replacements between the sticks and Ken Lawrence of The Sun says Jordan Pickford could be one of them. The 29-year-old has an uncertain future at Everton as the Toffees may need to sell valuable assets to balance the books.
Everton in financial difficulty
Everton are alleged to have breached Financial Fair Play rules, having lost £430m over three years, so there could be a summer exodus to put money back into the club. Pickford is valued at £45m, as per The Sun, but there’s no suggestion he’s trying to leave, nor are Everton actively touting him out.
The England international joined from Sunderland in 2017 and has gone on to make 237 appearances in all competitions, conceding 346 goals with 62 clean sheets. Pickford is regarded as one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier League, but it’s unknown whether Man United consider him an upgrade on De Gea.
The Spaniard won the Golden Glove for most Premier League clean sheets, but he was guilty of making errors last season. And with his contract running down to its final days, a departure could be on the cards. But would United spend more to sign Pickford than they did for the 32-year-old stopper?
Pickford, who’s kept an impressive 27 clean sheets in 54 games for the national team, is coming off the back of a good season. Despite Everton’s struggles, the 32-year-old boasted a marginally better save percentage (71.3%) for shots on target faced (181) than De Gea (71.1% of 142) and outperformed his own expected goals conceded tally by 3.0.
Lawrence of The Sun believes Everton could sell Pickford for cheap so they can register the transfer money on this years accounts, but they don’t have any offers to field just yet. Manchester United won’t make a decision until De Gea has decided on his own future.
