Manchester United aren't acting like elite clubs should do with David de Gea indecision

It's 11 months since David de Gea sat in a hotel room in Perth on Manchester United's pre-season tour and expressed a desire to finish his career at Old Trafford. His contract status was a talking point last July and everyone in that room knew it was a big year for the Spaniard's future.

Everyone that is, expects United. With the 32-year-old no longer an employee of the club this Saturday, they are still yet to decide whether they want De Gea to continue next season and in what kind of role. It would be laughable if it wasn't so farcical.

A club that not so long ago was a laughing stock when it came to the smoothness of its operation is parodying itself once again. United had taken huge strides forward under the leadership of chief executive Richard Arnold, football director John Murtough and Erik ten Hag, but the De Gea situation reflects poorly on a club that has designs on challenging for titles.

Just imagine Manchester City leaving it until the final 24 hours of a contract to make a decision on a player. Just imagine Liverpool doing the same. They wouldn't. These are the two clubs that have dominated the Premier League landscape in recent years and they have done it through the shrewdness of their decision-making as much as the quality of the football. One begets the other.

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United are a week or so away from returning to pre-season and have no idea who their first-choice goalkeeper will be. At the moment it's between wantaway Dean Henderson and 37-year-old Tom Heaton. United took the one-year option on Heaton's contract due to the uncertainty around their goalkeeping department, even though he was attracting interest from Luton and Hull and wanted to