The World Cup may be just five days away but all of the world's football headlines focus on the future of one Manchester United player: Cristiano Ronaldo.
The attention within the walls of United will be fixed firmly on Ronaldo in the coming days as more snippets from his pathetic and legacy-destroying interview with one of the few blokes who will still tell him everything he wants to hear are released over the coming days. If only he could be as explosive over 90 minutes on a football pitch as he has been in the interview we might not be here. But alas.
Ronaldo's time at United is undoubtedly done. Erik ten Hag already had ample justification for never playing him again but gave him a second and third chance. Giving someone the captain's armband is certainly a strange display of disrespect. Now his latest outburst, which would be unbefitting of a child getting his iPad taken away, should now make that a reality.
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Whether his contract is ripped up, he is sold in January or left to rot in solo training until his contract expires, Ronaldo has surely burned his last bridge at Old Trafford. Ten Hag has by no means been perfect but is clearly taking the club in the right direction after years of aimless wandering in the wilderness, and the No.7 has repeatedly done his level best to undermine and derail it.
Though his future should now be settled it is of course the club game's biggest talking point. One player's future who is far more uncertain but could also be in peril at United is David de Gea.
The goalkeeper has epitomised what it has meant to be a loyal servant over his 11 years in Manchester. He has reached very high levels of quality but when those have dipped he has always been one to front up, take responsibility and do his best to improve. But like Ronaldo, his best may not be good enough anymore.
De Gea remains a very competent shot-stopper, though liable to let a tame ball slip past him, but it's his passing and the possession side of his game that lets him down. That wasn't really a concern a decade ago when he was first signed but in today's game, the best teams have goalkeepers who are comfortable operating far out of their goal and with the ball at their feet. It allows them to play with higher lines and more intense presses if the goalkeeper can be relied upon to sweep up danger and be an option to pass too.
Goalkeepers aren't also dismissed as just there to stop the ball going in anymore, they can be viable to a team's attacking plans and strategies, as we've seen with the upturn in them grabbing assists. They have to be an 11th outfielder.
It's the side of the game De Gea has always struggled with and directly led to him losing his usual iron-clad spot in the Spain squad in recent years. He won't be heading to the World Cup, with Brighton's Robert Sanchez and Brentford's David Raya going instead as backups to Unai Simon.
"A goalkeeper should start the play and generate the first superiority, they must dominate the aerial play," Spain boss Luis Enrique said when explaining his selections. "I need a goalkeeper that transmits peace and calmness to me, that doesn’t mean they won’t make mistakes, errors are part of football. What they generate I like a lot."
It couldn't be clearer that he doesn't believe De Gea is strong enough on the ball or coming off his line and he is correct. It's also been a problem for United as Ten Hag would like to play in a more progressive way with his goalkeeper being involved in the formation of attacks but it's difficult with the 31-year-old. On several occasions this season he has given the ball away and directly led to a goal.
Though he has been a great player for United, if Ten Hag wants to take his team to a new level then a change will have to be made in the position. De Gea's contract is currently set to expire in the summer but the club do hold the option to extend it by a year.
Ten Hag has a big decision to make and he has already been shown an ideal successor by Enrique. Though he has certainly made his own glaring errors in the past, Brentford No.1 Raya is continuing to prove he is a dependable keeper very much worthy of his unlikely spot in the Spain set-up.
While reliable between the sticks with a 71.91 save percentage this season (De Gea's is 65.52) he showed just how good he is with the ball at his feet in the Bees' shock 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday. It was his pinpoint long pass to Ben Mee from a free-kick that directly led to the opening goal and his accurate distribution to Ivan Toney throughout the match caused the Blues all sorts of problems.
Throughout the season De Gea actually has a marginally better passing accuracy than Raya (65.54 vs 63.22) but the Brentford man has attempted nearly 200 more passes, is far more accurate over a long distance and is obviously more comfortable on the ball. De Gea can often panic when pressed and clip it out for a throw-in, whereas Raya is much more composed.
Spain have been brutal in their dropping of De Gea with a look towards the future and United may have to be too. If not Raya then certainly a goalkeeper of similar stature will be the one to take his place.
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