Real Madrid president Florentino Perez admits that Zinedine Zidane didn’t want to bring in David de Gea to replace Keylor Navas in his squad.
The Manchester United goalkeeper came within a hair’s distance of joining Real Madrid in the summer of 2015, only for the deal to collapse in the final minutes of the window because of faulty paperwork.
De Gea has continued to remain a pivotal player for Manchester United over the last two seasons and despite murmurs of Real Madrid returning again for him, Jose Mourinho has managed to hold on to the Spaniard.
Perez admits that he wanted to bring in the Spaniard at the Bernabeu but admits Navas is an equally good goalkeeper and has been a crucial part of a squad that won back-to-back Champions Leagues.
He indicated that Real Madrid could have returned to the negotiating table for De Gea this summer had Zidane wanted but the Frenchman was not in favour of replacing Navas.
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The Real Madrid president told Cadena SER: “At one point we wanted to bring in De Gea.
“But once we couldn’t, it turned out that we already have a good goalkeeper who is performing and is integrated with the rest of the squad and we don’t need to bring in one more.
“De Gea is a great goalkeeper, but he is just like Keylor so we have no need to change and also because the relationship between Keylor and the rest of the squad is very good.
“Zidane told us he didn’t want to change anyone.”
De Gea is yet to concede a goal in the Premier League this season with Manchester United slapping in ten unanswered strikes in their first three league games.
