It has been a turbulent few years for David De Gea at Manchester United.

With the side struggling to recreate the glory days of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, De Gea’s performances have declined alarmingly, lurching from one poor mistake to the next.

Initially, there were times when the Spaniard would single-handedly keep United afloat but, with time, the rust seems to have taken over.

There is no doubting his supreme ability - he was easily the best stopper in the world for several seasons - but something just does not seem right at the moment.

United have been desperately trying to tie him down to a new contract with his current deal rapidly drawing to an end but the ’keeper has rejected their advances at every turn.

Now, according to a report in The Sun, De Gea will reject a bumper contract worth £350,000 per week so that he can leave on a free transfer in the summer of 2020.

United’s offer remains on the table, but according to friends of the 28-year-old, per the Sun, he is ready to snub that offer.

United’s policy of making players take a 25% pay-cut if they fail to qualify for the Champions League has been a point of contention in the drawn-out negotiations.

The ’keeper will be allowed to sign a pre-contract with another club from January onwards so unless United can do something to convince him to stay, this could well be his last season at Old Trafford.

Having been relegated to the bench for the Spanish national side, De Gea will be desperate to recover the kind of form that made him the best in the world only a few seasons ago.

Now, he looks set to run down his contract and wave goodbye to Manchester next year.

To lose a player of De Gea’s ilk is disastrous, but to lose him on a free is simply catastrophic.