Manchester United need to complete an important piece of Internal Transfer Business

While rivals such as Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have been active in the market United have enjoyed a comparatively low-key transfer window with only Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk going to improve the first-team in the short term with other signings Diogo Dalot, one for the future and Lee Grant being bought to be the third choice keeper.

With less than 20 days to go for the transfer window due to the early closure of the English transfer window this season fans are undoubtedly nervous as to whether the team Mourinho can improve team at his disposal to match rivals, especially defending champions City and heavy spenders Liverpool who have plugged all the gaping holes with an impressive transfer window the next season.

Fred is the only new signing so far that would walk straight into the first team

Manchester United still need at least a winger, a consistent left-back and an injury free centre-back to compete on all fronts and to avoid another season of empty-handedness and excuses.

While Ed Woodward is undoubtedly working hard behind the scenes to assemble the team Mourinho wants, United should not forget that they have an important piece of internal transfer business to complete first.

David De Gea has less than two years on his deal at United and with Madrid looking to make a statement signing in wake of the departure of Ronaldo, Mourinho and United are in a precarious position. We have been here before...

The summer of 2015 was when De Gea was the closest to joining Madrid with only God's plan or Woodward's cheekiness stopping him from joining them and he immediately signed a new 4-year deal at United.

He was in a similar situation that time too with a year to run on his deal which made United vulnerable to approaches from big teams which Real Madrid almost took advantage of and though United are in a safer and better bargaining position compared to 2015, they should look to avoid similar mistakes.

Liverpool paying 65 million to sign Alisson who has just had one good season so far in his career shows how inflated the market the market has become and United can confidently ask interested clubs in excess of 100m for De Gea, who has been consistently world-class at United for the past few years.

Allison Becker's transfer to Liverpool is a further example of today's inflated market

What this also shows that it would be almost impossible to replace a World class keeper like De Gea no matter the money you have with only a few currently on his level such as Courtois of Chelsea, Neuer of Bayern and Oblak of Atletico Madrid. all of them either unattainable or unwilling to leave their respective clubs.

Real Madrid are finding it the hard way this season with them currently struggling to replace their talisman Ronaldo even with virtually unlimited funds and United would be in the same unenviable position if they were ever to sell their talisman in De Gea.

Recent rumblings from the papers have suggested that De Gea is relaxed and happy at United and has ended thoughts of a move to Real Madrid and has verbally agreed a five year deal at United.

But the transfer market is a funny place where the dynamics change swiftly and United do not have a better time to get that new deal in writing with De Gea's strained relationship with fans back home due to his performances at the recently concluded world cup means he is hungrier than ever to prove his worth and United need to make use of the situation.

United have bigger fish to fry in the transfer market and Woodward should wrap up the De Gea contract situation soon enough to avoid further headaches.

It has taken Liverpool close to 10 years and a world record fee for a goalkeeper to find a reliable goalkeeper after Pepe Reina and god knows how many years it is going to take for United to fully replace De Gea.

The Big teams have become the big teams by adding world class players to their ranks rather than selling them and United can say that they currently boast only one world-class player in their ranks in De Gea which makes tying him to a new deal their first priority.

United are still struggling to replace Ronaldo, 10 years after he moved to Real Madrid and if David De Gea follows the same path as Ronaldo it would be even more difficult for them to replace him than it has been to replace Ronaldo such has been his importance to this United side over. the last few years.

Mourinho and Woodward already have enough complications to attend to in the transfer market and they do not need the added complication of finding a new goalkeeper which is proving equally as difficult as finding a proven goal scorer.