Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon still believes Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea will move to Los Blancos despite the deal having seemingly stalled recently.

De Gea has long been considered the likely successor at Madrid to Iker Casillas, who has now departed the Bernabeu for Porto.

Despite the Spaniard having only one year left on his contract at Old Trafford, Real’s recent refusal to allow centre-back Sergio Ramos to move to United looked to have scuppered Madrid’s chances of signing De Gea this summer, per Sid Lowe in the Guardian.

However, Calderon is still convinced De Gea will move to the Bernabeu before the current transfer window closes, per the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast (h/t talkSPORT’s Ian Cruise):

If De Gea wants to leave it will be difficult to keep him. It seemed as though United thought it was inevitable and the signing of [Sergio] Romero suggests they decided to do something. Maybe they are playing poker and trying to push Madrid into letting them have Sergio Ramos. 

Madrid needs a goalkeeper like De Gea. They let [Iker] Casillas go because they were sure they would get De Gea, and I think in the end De Gea will be coming. That’s my opinion.

Calderon pointed to United’s recent signing of Argentine goalkeeper Romero as a signal that the Red Devils are preparing for life without De Gea.

Bleacher Report’s Sam Tighe, though, indicated that Romero has been brought in as a back-up to replace Victor Valdes, and he is nowhere near good enough to replace De Gea, one of the world’s best goalkeepers:

De Gea does certainly seem to want to go to Real, and return to his home city, as was reported by Goal.com’s Duncan Castles last month. 

But it is still very much United’s prerogative to keep him until his contract expires next summer, and then let him go for free.

With Real seemingly unwilling to indulge United’s desire to let Ramos go the other way if they let De Gea move this summer, the Red Devils may indeed hang on to him for another season.

Los Blancos seemed to indicate they expect as much, as they recently signed Kiko Casilla from Espanyol, seemingly to play back up in the coming season to current No. 1 Keylor Navas, per SportsJOE.ie:

There is still plenty of time left in the summer transfer window and Calderon may yet be proven right in his assertions that De Gea will still end up at Real.

However, the current situation seems very murky, with Ramos set to stay put, and United surely not about to let De Gea go and rely on Romero for the upcoming season.

What does seem certain, however, is that Jese Rodriguez is set to stay at Real having found a new lease of life in pre-season under Rafael Benitez.

Jese scored the opener in Real’s convincing 3-0 International Champions Cup win over Inter Milan on Monday and looks as though he could play a bigger role for Los Blancos in the coming season.

A return from injury and lack of form saw the 22-year-old Spaniard limited to mainly substitute appearances last term, and there were reports he may be on his way out of the Bernabeu, per Fichajes.net (h/t Metro‘s George Bellshaw).

Now, though, Jese has put to bed any thoughts of departing the La Liga giants, per Spanish outlet Sport:

I never wanted to leave. This club has given me so much and I now have the confidence of the new coach. We’ll fight on. I don’t mind where I play. I like all attacking positions so I can adapt easily. So far so good [under Rafa]. He likes to work hard and is worried about every detail. We have no doubts that he is a great coach. He‘s showing this now through his daily training regime with tactical chats and his training sessions. The squad is highly motivated and we aim to do well.

Madrid fans will no doubt be delighted to hear Jese pledge his future to the club as he looks to be a special talent who could thrive at Madrid in the years to come.

With the likes of Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in the squad, he will have to fight for his place, but he is clearly up for the challenge.

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