by David De Gea has expressed his wish to stay at Manchester United for the rest of his career as new contract negotiations continue.
The 32-year-old’s current contract expires at the end of the season and United have the option of a one-year extension, but a longer contract is in talks.
“I am very comfortable,” De Gea said when asked about his contract status. “I just focus on training, doing my best. But it will definitely end well.
“I hope (I stay) for the rest of my career. This is my club, I’ve been here for many years and I was saying it’s a great honor to be here and I’m very happy here.”
United are currently looking to bring in extra competition for De Gea after Martin Dubravka returns to Newcastle and is linked to a move for Crystal Palace’s Jack Butland.
De Gea showed his importance for United once again in Tuesday night’s win over Bournemouth, keeping the score 2-0 with key saves from Philip Billing and Jaidon Anthony before Marcus Rashford took United’s third win.
Another clean slate means United have not conceded a league goal at home since their 3-1 win over Arsenal in September – a record set by Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne during a visit to Manchester City on 14 January following the FA Cup. and will be tested by others. and Carabao Cup fixtures.
“This is how it should be coming here – it must be a tough place for teams, let’s see in the future,” De Gea said.
“We are playing really well, we have to prepare for every game like the final and recover well, keeping the momentum as much as we can. We need to recover really well because we’re playing a lot of matches (this month).”
This defensive record has been key for United to raise the table since they started the season with back-to-back losses.
When asked what has changed from last season, De Gea said, “We were talking, everybody is ready, everybody is focused, everybody is training really well, everybody is in the same direction, so it’s huge.”
“It doesn’t matter who plays. Even the substitutes, no matter who comes in, they put everything on the pitch, we have a great team spirit and it’s great for me to see the players play like that.”
United are in fourth place on Tuesday after Newcastle’s draw with Arsenal, but are on par with the Magpies and just one behind City ahead of their trip to Chelsea on Thursday.
With 13 wins in the last 16 in all competitions, their form is for everyone – testament to the impact Ten Hag has made this season.
“It’s going well,” said De Gea. “We’re putting every player in the same direction and we feel like a fit team. Everybody wants to win, everybody wants to play for this club and that’s huge.
“He brought a great spirit to the team, we’re playing really well and that’s how we need to show and maintain momentum.”
And De Gea also revealed Ten Hag’s exacting standards when asked about the manager’s judgment on what turned out to be a comfortable victory.
“He was happy with the clean score but was also a little angry that we took too many chances,” De Gea said. “We were very open at the end of the game, so he was a little angry.”
