Featured Image Credit: The Wayne Rooney Show/Getty
Topics: Wayne Rooney, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Manchester United, Premier League, PSG, Football
Chris Byfield
Topics: Wayne Rooney, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Manchester United, Premier League, PSG, Football
Wayne Rooney said it would be “crazy” if Manchester United didn’t sign Paris Saint-Germain Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Italy international Donnarumma is set to leave PSG this summer, with the 26-year-old having claimed in a statement last week “someone has decided that I can no longer be part of the group”.
The PSG star’s comments came out after he was left out of the club’s Super Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur because they want a “different goalkeeping profile”.
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Amid Donnarumma being seemingly destined to leave PSG, United and Manchester City have both been tipped to sign the 74-cap international.
And United legend Wayne Rooney said in the wake of United's 1-0 Premier League defeat to Arsenal that it would be “crazy” if the club didn’t try to sign the Italian, who would allegedly cost north of £25m, as per Ben Jacobs.
“Yeah I think [signing a new goalkeeper] has to be a thing,” the former England striker said, on his eponymous The Wayne Rooney show. “I go back to when we had Roy Carroll and Tim Howard in goal.
“I don’t think there was 100 per cent trust from the defenders in front of those two goalkeepers.
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“But the minute [Edwin] Van der Sar came in and calmed everything down, the defenders trusted him a lot more and you see a better output of performance.
“And I think that’s where Manchester United are. They want that confidence and that trust in the goalkeeper behind them and tell them where to go. Sometimes it can be just having a calmness and speaking at the right moments.
“The goalkeeper is so important in providing that calmness throughout the team. Especially the back four or five. Van der Sar did that for us.
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“Onana’s come in. He’s a fantastic keeper - I watched him at Inter Milan and he was brilliant so if they don’t bring in a new goalkeeper you hope he can get back to that. But he certainly didn’t fill us with confidence last season.”
Rooney concluded: “I think with Donnaruma, he’s 26. He’s one of the best keepers in the world. It would be crazy if Manchester United didn't go for him.
“I don’t think he’s a risk. I saw a stat the other day - the errors leading to direct goals. His was zero. Some of his other stats weren’t right at the top, but I think that’s important.
“When a goalkeeper makes a mistake it’s difficult to recover, in that game and moving forward, so depending on what they can do salary wise, I would certainly be trying to bring him into the club.”