When you smile the whole world smiles with you but when you cry, you cry alone.
David De Gea is very quickly learning the fickle nature of our nation’s press as well as some of the fans after his error against West Brom. Amazingly being written off as flop after 2 games in the press and by some fans, his introduction to English football has been a very harsh one.
Players like Chris Smalling and assistant manager Mike Phelan have moved to defend the keeper publicly whilst his country man Iker Casillas has also defended him in the Spanish press but an unlikely figure has spoken out in his defence over here that is likely to raise a few eyebrows.
Having been one of the greatest goalscorers in the Premiership era of English football, Ian Wright will know a thing or two about goalkeepers and what makes a good one.
The striker was a permanent fixture in Arsenal’s team during the 90s scoring goals for fun and whilst his job was centered around giving goalkeepers a bad day, he has seen something in De Gea that leads him to believe he won’t be having too many of those as he wrote in his column for The Sun,
“He is only 20 and has gone straight into the team after arriving at the club for a lot of money.
“Yet any mistakes he makes are always going to be highlighted, because he is at arguably the biggest club in the world. The spotlight will always be on him.
“When you have had great keepers like Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar, it is always going to be difficult to follow in their footsteps.
“United had a couple of slip-ups with Fabien Barthez and Mark Bosnich – and even Schmeichel had a tough couple of games when he first arrived.
“But Alex Ferguson knows what he is doing and the fact he has thrown the Spaniard in so quickly has made me question why others think he should have been held back.
“It is amazing that a 20-year-old is playing in goal for United. But I would look at him alongside the other young players they have brought in, like Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.
“If Ferguson thinks you are good enough to merit paying out that sort of money to bring you to Manchester United, then there is really nothing to worry about.
“From what I have seen of De Gea, as long as he can keep going and limit his mistakes – because all goalies make mistakes – he will be fine.”
