Manchester United ask for Ramos and Navas in return for their Spanish goalkeeper.

In addition to digging their heels in over the sale of David de Gea, Manchester United have now come up with an impossible counter demand - Sergio Ramos and Keylor Navas in exchange for their Spanish international keeper.

Behind this bold move is the strategy evolved by Ed Woodward, CEO at Manchester United, who has decided to treat the De Gea case as a personal issue.

After a year and a half during which time Manchester United have grown tired of making lots of increasingly attractive offers to De Gea for him to extend his contract, the United board are not prepared to let him go that easily or that quickly.

At Real Madrid, they are dismissive of the 2 for 1 proposal, as they are well aware that it is nothing more than a part of the negotiations which in due course will lead to De Gea playing for them.

Meanwhile, Louis van Gaal, who spoke in praise of his goalkeeper, still does not know if on Monday De Gea will be getting on the plane to the United States, where Manchester United will start their pre-season tour. Everything points to him not being on board.

Elsewhere, while the Iker Casillas deal which will take him to FC Porto is being sealed and the David de Gea affair with Manchester United rumbles on, Real Madrid are continuing to work on bringing in Kiko Casilla.

Their contacts with Espanyol have intensified over the past few hours, and Real Madrid are hoping to sign their goalkeeper as soon as they can. A few days ago, Real Madrid offered Espanyol over €3 million, which is not enough for the Catalan club.

Real Madrid are hoping to bring the deal in at around €6-8 million, still lower than Espanyol's price tag of €10 million.