Jose Mourinho reiterated that he expects David de Gea to sign a new long-term contract at Old Trafford after Manchester United activated the 12-month extension on his current deal.
It means De Gea will not leave for free next summer, although that has not stopped talk of a possible transfer, with Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus linked.
De Gea has yet to commit to a longer term deal, however his manager insists the goalkeeper wants to stay beyond 2019-20.
'He wants to stay and I want him to stay, of course,' said Mourinho. 'He's the level of player Manchester United needs. Manchester United needs the best players in the world. If we want to be Manchester United we need the best player in the world.
'The manager wants him to stay, the board wants, David's agent wants him to stay, he's not the kind of agent that is manipulative like others, his agent lets him think and decide by himself so the point is to agree the contract and that's just my feeling, they are going to finish well.'
United paid tribute to their No 1 on Friday from their official Twitter account - they posted 'A list of goalkeepers better than De Gea'.
It was followed by a large blank space, with a GIF at the bottom of De Gea wagging his finger in rebuttal.
Mourinho also paid tribute to Marouane Fellaini whose injury-time winner against Young Boys sent United into the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday night.
He admitted that the big Belgian is 'not Maradona', but praised him for coming up with some crucial goals.
especially
213
De Gea is loved and appreciated at United. He will go down as one of our greatest players of all time. The second he makes a mistake for Spain the entire country and the media turns on him. United will eventually reward him for his loyalty. schmeichel was 37 and Van Der Sar was 38 when they won the Champions league. Eventually we'll get back to winning the league as well in the mean time.
Edoo87
199
the first thing you are confident to be in united or not loooooool
kissyou
188
I don't think David would want to go , it took him and his girlfriend 7 years to finally settle in new city, they're not willing to do that over again, especially where you have to learn new language. David really loves United and only teams realistically that he'd choose are Spanish one. Both of them have no keeper problem, so I think he'll stay.
pluslove
111
Great news that Manchester United activated De Gea’s 1-year deal, but now give him every penny he deserves and lock him up for 5 more years. He has been the best player at the club for quite some time and deserves to be the highest paid. Best in the world