DAVID DE GEA EXTENDS MAN UNITED CONTRACT

Here is the full take on the effect of the Spaniards new contract at Manchester United

Why De Gea's contract makes sense for him, Man United and Real Madrid

‪#‎Davestays‬ was the hashtag.

Does he?

David De Gea will stay for the 2015-16 season at Manchester United, barring something unexpected. And he won't leave in the January transfer window for a cut price, which would have been a possibility had he not extended his deal.

What happens after that is still up in the air.

Rumors were rife that there was some kind of understanding or private agreement or specific clause in his contract extension that would enable him to move to Real Madrid in the summer, possibly at a preset price. There has been no confirmation on this but, odds are, if such a clause exists, you'll read about in the Spanish media real soon.

In the meantime, we do have some facts.

We know that De Gea refused to extend his contract with Manchester United until this past week. We know he wanted to move to Real Madrid and that hours before the window closed, Manchester United agreed a fee with the Spanish club. (We also know the deal did not go through on time). We know that until Thursday morning he was nine months away from free agency.

And now we know that he put pen to paper on contract through 2019, with an option for more seasons. It's a deal that will see his annual salary rise from around $3.1 million a year to more than $11 million.

Beyond that, we're in the realm of speculation.

So let's speculate.

Why did De Gea change his mind? It could be that he had a change of heart about staying at United. That he's sold on what manager Louis van Gaal is building. That the rumors about his girlfriend pressuring him to move back to Madrid were wildly exaggerated. That he believes his long-term future is best served at Old Trafford. (It's highly unlikely, as some suggested, that United simply threatened him with the bench if he didn't sign. You'd have to have a pretty low opinion of Van Gaal and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to believe that. It would also be illegal, and there's plenty of jurisprudence to back that.)

It could also be that De Gea still wants a move, but this is some kind of compensation. He'll make almost as much in the next nine months as he did in his first three seasons at Old Trafford. He turns 25 in November; he earned a relative pittance at his previous club, Atletico Madrid.

That bump for nine months will move him from the category of very wealthy twentysomethings to twentysomethings who could retire and live comfortably for the rest of their lives. There's something to be said for long-term security. Improbable as it may seem, a season at Old Trafford followed by free agency would cost him dear if he suffered a career-ending injury or illness. This is insurance.

The flip side is that it makes it tougher for De Gea to move to Real Madrid. United would be able to get fair market value for him in the summer. What's fair market value for one of the world's top three keepers at age 25? Probably not far off a nine-digit number.

So the natural conclusion -- assuming De Gea hasn't changed his mind about wanting to return home -- is that there's some kind of release clause or agreement in his contract to address this.

How high?

We don't know. It would certainly need to be high enough to cover his raise and make it worthwhile for United. But you would expect it would not be so high as to make Madrid unwilling to pay it.

Indeed, if you were cynical, you would expect that the price, with a bit of mediation from De Gea's agent, Jorge Mendes, has already been agreed. It's a number that both clubs are comfortable with.

Why would United agree to this? Because it gives them a season with De Gea (rather than Sergio Romero) between the sticks. And not just any De Gea, but a calm, focused De Gea who will have few distractions or concerns about his long-term financial security. Of course, it means they'll receive a transfer fee if they sell him. Whatever it is, it will be more than the zero they would have gotten if he had become a free agent at the end of this season. And, if they don't sell him, they'll still have one of the best keepers in the world.

Wouldn't Madrid have put pressure on De Gea to not sign a new contract? Their leverage, of course, is limited, but that doesn't mean they don't have any. Real president Florentino Perez's statements after the breakdown of the move were lukewarm, but that easily could be just a facade. They could have told him: "sit tight and trust us. Come Jan. 1 we'll offer you a mega-deal." Maybe that's what they did, but they weren't persuasive enough. Or maybe there's mileage in the stories about Mendes increasingly becoming persona non grata at Florentino's house. Perhaps the backdrop to this is their relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, who is also a Mendes client. Whatever the case, without breaking tampering regulations, there wasn't much Real Madrid could do.

As for De Gea, the deal United put on the table was likely too good to pass up. It's true that when players move as free agents, they usually command far higher salaries, since there's no transfer fee involved. But Madrid were never going to offer him much more than what United just did. Keepers simply don't get Ronaldo-type money. Odds are, unless Keylor Navas and/or Kiko Casilla wow the sweatpants off Rafa Benitez, there will still be an opening at the Bernabeu in June.

There's also a Mendes factor in all this. He has done a lot of business with Woodward in the past 13 months -- Angel Di Maria (twice), Radamel Falcao, Anthony Martial -- and he's likely to continue doing more. He may have his own reasons for helping out, starting with the fact that he may well get to negotiate two De Gea contracts and one De Gea move in less than a year, as opposed to simply a free transfer and a single De Gea deal.

In some ways, we've been here before. Rewind to the summer of 2008. Real Madrid were aggressively pursuing one Cristiano Ronaldo, to the point that the club filed a tampering complaint with FIFA. Even Sepp Blatter weighed in, helpfully comparing Ronaldo's plight to slavery. Then, in early August, Ronaldo himself quashed the rumors, announcing he would stay at Old Trafford.

A year later he was sold to Real Madrid for a world-record fee. Sure, he was a Ballon d'Or winner, but he was also a year away from free agency. There had been rumors of an agreement all season long, roundly denied by all, including Sir Alex Ferguson, who famously said of Real Madrid: "You don't think we'd get into a contract with that mob? I wouldn't sell them a virus."

In the end, it worked out for everyone. They were able to leave on good terms with Ronaldo describing Sir Alex as "a footballing father" and the United manager lavishing equal praise back.

Is this a similar scenario?

We won't know until the summer. But put it this way: if Woodward got De Gea and Mendes to agree to the extension WITHOUT some kind of private agreement or release clause, it's pretty darn close to the deal of the century, and it redeems the inanity of letting his contract wind down in the first place.

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