Much has been said about Real Madrid’s transfer ban for the summer of 2016 and winter of 2017 and how they cannot sign or sell anyone in the next two transfer periods. While many have focused on how this has affected Real Madrid, not many have discussed how this affects other teams looking to do business with Real.
While Real Madrid is in the process of appealing the transfer ban, let’s assume for this article, the ban will remain in effect. After failing to complete a deal to receive Manchester United’s world class goalkeeper David de Gea this past summer, the likely plan was to sign him this upcoming summer. If the ban remains in effect, that plan will be dashed.
But because of this ban, this could be a blessing in disguise for Manchester United. Things have changed in five months. As someone who really wanted to leave Manchester, de Gea signed a new contract and has felt better about playing for Man United. With another year of not going to Real Madrid and likely remaining at Manchester United, de Gea could be convinced to stay on the red side of Manchester for the long haul.
In addition, for Manchester United, they must confront the elephant in the room. The fact that David de Gea has been the person responsible for Manchester United to not be an struggling midtable team and seemingly saving Louis van Gaal’s job every week, the team would completely fall apart if he had left for Real Madrid. If it wasn’t for de Gea’s heroics last season, Manchester United wouldn’t have qualified for the Champions League. And given Manchester United’s season so far, even de Gea’s talent isn’t enough for United.
They are currently in 5th and are slowly being separated from the top four teams, being five points behind Tottenham. It would be scary to think what would happen to the team if de Gea wasn’t on the team.
So the real winner of Real Madrid’s transfer ban will be Manchester United. David de Gea gets to stay in Manchester for at least another year and may be able to stay in the Champions League hunt until the team can turn things around in the other positions.
