It's been mentioned tonight during Nevilles testamonial, he looks like he could develope into a top keeper but it's a gamble signing a 20 year old to replace Van Der Sar

Massive and unneeded gamble.....How many 'fantastic' 20 year old keepers go on to be great keepers??....Not many to be honest, most simply burn out or just turn out to be not very good.....Foster, Carson, Green, Simonsen, etc, were all the next big thing and all were involved in big moves...All have turned out to be average or worse.

United would be wiser simply 'stealing' an already established keeper, such as Reina , than gambling a big amount on someone with 'potential'.

No, because that's called business (making money and then investing it). What Chelski and Man City have done / are doing is simply buying trophies, therefore their purchases mean absolutely FA.

It was always evident, however you seemed to implode for about 6 weeks after the FA cup defeat.

A safe be like world cup winr Barthez? Or Premier League stalwart Bosnich? It's easier said than done and De Gea has much more talent than the likes of Simonsen and Green ever had! I think it's a risk, but any goalkeeper is, especially replacing EVDS.

Apparently Ashley Young's had his medical at United today.

When I'm home I'll check back to see this. I've never knowingly lost it on a forum before, so I hope you and your acolytes are right.

Bosnich had problems which were totally unrelated to football.....He was a class keeper otherwise.

As for Barthez, he was totally unproven in the week to week pressure of the Premier League, and even before his move had a reputation for being slightly eccentric.

Whilst DeGea may indeed be the real deal, at this stage of his career £17.5million is a hell of a risk....Leave him to develop somewhere else then pluck him when the time is right (like you did with Van Der Sar, even if it was 4 or 5 years to late)....I'd spend that cash at present on Reina. Liverpool would probably take it, considering they are going to sign Friedal.

an inability to kick, unrelated to football?

Fergie confirms it's De Gea.

It's a gamble, there were more experienced options with the likes of Akinfeev or Stekelenburg but De Gea looks to have all the talent. The job now is can he develop into the type of keeper he could be and will he adjust to the PL?