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Manchester United’s best footballer has not signed a new contract. Nor, it seems, is he on the point of doing so.

There is no agreement in place for David de Gea to commit the next five years of his career to the Premier League club. Nor from the Spaniard’s perspective is one close to being reached.

The calculation is this. For the last four seasons, and five of the last six, the PFA has voted de Gea the best goalkeeper in England. For four of the past five seasons de Gea has been the Manchester United supporters’ or players’ Player of the Year. On three occasions he has taken both awards.

With that level of performance and consistency de Gea believes he should be on a par with the two highest-paid players at Old Trafford – Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez.

This summer’s transfer business strengthened de Gea’s case. The highest fee for a keeper – a record that survived Gianluigi Buffon’s 17-year stay at Juventus – was reset twice.

Allison Becker and Kepa Arrizabalaga moved to Premier League rivals, and the £72m Chelsea spent on the latter out from Athletic Bilbao was the one of the three highest fees paid by an English club. The argument that goalkeepers come relatively cheap no longer stands.

There are further issues for United. De Gea has less than a year remaining on the deal he signed shortly after a 2015 deadline day move to Real Madrid fell through.

While United hold an option to extend his contract for one further season, in January 2020 – 16 months’ time – the player would be free to agree a pre-contract with any overseas suitor. Ed Woodward not only risks losing a key playing asset with perhaps a decade of future career ahead of him, United’s executive vice-chairman risks losing him for nothing.

Three major domestic and European rivals have made overtures to de Gea in recent times - Madrid, Chelsea and PSG. Chelsea now have Kepa and Madrid have Thibaut Courtois, the latter signing closing a door on de Gea’s preferred career move. But PSG signed Buffon on a single-season deal last month.

(Image: REUTERS)

The Italian turns 41 in January, is in Paris to try to add the Champions League to his many titles but will certainly not be there long-term.

If Woodward thinks Courtois’ move to Real means it will be straightforward to renew de Gea the ex-investment banker may have miscalculated.

Jose Mourinho has made it clear he expects de Gea to be kept, stating last week he would not swap the 27-year-old for anyone and expected the contract to be extended “as soon as possible”.

The manager said: “He likes it here, we love him, we want him to stay, he wants to stay. So when a player is not in the market the value is zero.

“A goalkeeper is a player. Sometimes people forget that. And forget a goalkeeper gives points, gives titles, and is as important as another player.

“So the old story of, ‘I pay that for a striker but I don’t pay that for a keeper’, is old-fashioned now.”

(Image: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty)

De Gea has been waiting for United to make him an offer that reflects his market value for over a year, yet the club’s general position when it comes to renewing contracts is an unusual one.

Currently United have 10 senior players on deals that expire at the end of this season – a huge number for a squad that finished second in the Premier League and was fortified with just one starting line-up transfer in the summer window.

In rough order of their importance to their manager, de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Matteo Darmian are all in the final year of deals.

The club holds options to extend some of those contracts for a further season, others have already been activated.

(Image: Getty Images North America)

A few of this group are central to Mourinho’s plan. Many he would have sold had Woodward approved their sales. The majority are neither here nor there.

Not only have they failed to hold down a starting place under successive Old Trafford managers, it’s hard to imagine them as first choices at United’s main rivals for the English title.

Like so much else at Manchester United, the contract profile of the squad reeks of indecisiveness, of a board with limited experience in football that makes poor strategic decisions.

A failure to tie down de Gea would extend their long list of errors.