Who is finished? David de Gea sends Onana and Man Utd a message

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 6 Nov 2024 15:11 GMT
• 4 min read

In arguably the comeback story of the year, discarded former Man Utd star David de Gea has shown that he is far from finished.

Despite spending a year without a club, De Gea has been a colossus since joining Fiorentina as a free agent in August.

He has statistically been the best goalkeeper in Serie A, boasting the league’s highest save percentage and an impressive four clean sheets from his eight games.

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Fiorentina have the third fewest goals conceded in Serie A, a feat that has led them up to joint-third in the table, just three points behind leaders Napoli.

La Viola are the most in-form team in Italy, having now won seven matches in a row in all competitions.

De Gea has played a huge role in this, with a string of fantastic performances.

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He put on a clinic in the 2-1 win over Milan last month, saving two penalties in the same game. Not known for his abilities to save penalties while at United, De Gea was also the hero in the UEFA Conference League playoff victory over Puskas Academy in a shootout.

Last week he put on a man of the match performance with some huge saves in the 1-0 win over Genoa, before keeping another clean sheet on Sunday in the 1-0 victory at Genoa.

So impressive has De Gea been that he actually boasts the highest average player rating in Serie A with the Italian newspapers that are used to determine Fantasy Football points.

Man Utd will be watching De Gea’s performances wondering whether they were premature releasing De Gea - who is still only 33 - at the end of the 2022-23 season.

De Gea exit from Man Utd

It was Erik ten Hag who axed the shot-stopper at Man Utd and the two parties reportedly separated in acrimony.

In his final season at Old Trafford, De Gea had come under heavy fire for his repeated mistakes, particularly with the ball at his feet. Ten Hag demanded of him to be an active participant in the build-up and the veteran clearly wasn't comfortable with it.

Towards the end of the 2022/23 campaign, rumours began circulating that Man Utd had wanted to extend De Gea's contract but that they eventually changed the terms and asked the 33-year-old to take a sizable pay cut.

No agreement was ultimately reached and De Gea departed as a free agent in the summer, subsequently finding himself without a job.

Meanwhile, Man Utd splashed €50 million on Ten Hag's former Ajax protégé Andre Onana.

Onana has had an up and down time so far, while United themselves have been a disaster - leading to the sacking of Ten Hag last week.

Indeed, De Gea appeared to send a message to Ten Hag about the decision to release him when the Dutchman was sacked.

The Spaniard took to X to seemingly share his thoughts on the matter, simply posting a 'chef's kiss' or pinched fingers emoji, which supporters inevitably took to mean that he was delighted about Ten Hag losing his job.

Either way, Man Utd’s loss has been Fiorentina’s gain as they fly high. As for De Gea, he is showing that he is far from the finished player he was painted to be when leaving Man Utd and spending a year in the wilderness.