By Ian Ladyman
Real Madrid are eyeing Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea as a long-term replacement for Iker Casillas.
The Spanish champions and their manager Jose Mourinho have a strong relationship with De Gea’s agent Jorge Mendes and feel they can exploit that to tempt De Gea back to Spain in the foreseeable future.
Casillas has already stated that he sees De Gea as his successor in Spain’s national team and feels he can bring him on by working with the keeper at the Bernabeu.
Suggestions in Spain that De Gea is homesick in Manchester have not been confirmed by United.
He has been in and out of the United team and is not certain to start against Braga in the Champions League on Tuesday, which sources in Spain feel is contributing to his restlessness.
Earlier this month, De Gea admitted he often finds life tough at United.
‘I am working flat-out every day because I need to regain the confidence of the coach.
‘For me, a training session is a match and after that it is necessary for me to show what levels I can achieve in games.
‘I ended last season satisfied with my work for Manchester United, but it is quite normal to go back to zero at the start of the following season.
‘I don’t believe I have been at the top in the last couple of months but with each game I am rediscovering my level.
‘I accept the manager’s decision. If he considers Anders [Lindegaard] as No 1 it is not a problem for me I only want to play and maintain my challenge for the position.’
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has no plans to choose a No 1 just yet, preferring to rotate De Gea and Lindegaard.
‘Everybody wants to play, goalkeepers are no different, but the way I look at it at the moment is getting the two of them experience will help me in the long term,’ he said.
‘Obviously at some stage one of them will take over if he shows a real consistency in top-level performance and he has shown a maturity.
‘At the moment neither of them have got that big-game experience. They will get that in time.’
