Player was on ‘private jet’ to sign for Man United – Deal collapse seen as reason for success

Thibaut Courtois is hugely under press at Real Madrid right now.

Fans of the club have never really taken to the former Chelsea goalkeeper, and his form hasn’t done enough to convince them the signing was a good decision.

That’s led Spanish sport newspapers to publish countless articles on where it’s all gone wrong, and Manchester United play a part in it.

AS reports Madrid’s management of their goalkeeping situation has been ‘erratic’. It’s explained the club tried to get David De Gea from Old Trafford, despite many fans making it clear they’d have rather stuck with Keylor Navas.

A deal was agreed, and AS state Navas was on a ‘private jet’ on his way to sign for Manchester United, but the fax machine killed the move.

Now, this fax machine is held in high regard by fans of the Premier League club, as they feel it helped them keep De Gea.

Over at Madrid, AS state that rather than regretting the deal never happened, the slant is now quite the opposite: ‘That fax helped Madrid win three Champions Leagues in a row.’

That shows just how highly rated Navas has been at Real Madrid, and further underlines the pressure Courtois is under.

Given the affection for Navas, De Gea may have faced similar scrutiny to the Belgian had he managed to leave Manchester United.