Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that new Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea needs to learn English – quickly.
De Gea doesn’t speak a word of English, but just as Ferguson once gave Peter Schmeichel a taste of English life by bombarding him with training-ground crosses, so he has been looking at ways to fast track the 20-year-old to learn the lingo.
Ferguson said: “The only problem with De Gea at the moment is that he doesn’t speak any English.
“We have got him working on certain calls and shouts with the defenders.
“I’m not worried about his age. I looked at Petr Cech when he was a teenager at Rennes and when we dismissed him because of his young age, he then went to Chelsea and it was clear we made a mistake.
“When we were scouting De Gea, we dismissed his age and focused on what qualities he could bring and he has a lot going for him.
“At the moment, he hasn’t got a great physique, he’s tall and wiry but we will work on that.”