Man Utd to offer De Gea new deal - Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Manchester United will offer David De Gea a new contract.

United have an option to extend De Gea's current contract, which runs until 2019, by a further year, and Mourinho has confirmed that the club will trigger that clause while also attempting to negotiate longer terms with the Spain international.

“It’s obvious that we’re not going to let the option [in De Gea’s contract] disappear,” he said, per the Daily Telegraph. “A goalkeeper like he is, and obviously a club that wants to be better and better and better, we are not going to let that year option go away.

“But obviously we are going to try [to extend his contract]. Mr Woodward [Ed Woodward, the club's executive vice chairman] is not on holiday. He barely has holidays. Of course he’s going to try to give him a contract that keeps him here for much longer than that option that, of course, we are going to execute.”

De Gea has been ever present for United in the Premier League this season, conceding just 16 goals in 22 games.

The 27-year-old, arguably United's most important player, has been linked with moves away from the club, however, and almost joined Real Madrid in 2015, when a deal worth £29 million would have seen De Gea move to Spain and Keylor Navas join United.

However, the transfer fell through at the eleventh hour — both clubs denied blame for the fiasco — and De Gea stayed at Old Trafford, though he was again linked with a move to the Bernabeu last summer.

When pressed on whether negotiations had been initiated between the club and De Gea, he replied:  “I don’t know. I just trust the board and the work they do. I don’t negotiate players, I don’t discuss numbers and contracts. I just say what is obvious. Anyone of you would say the same — David is to keep.”