Louis van Gaal has admitted that David de Gea can leave Manchester United to join Real Madrid in the summer.

Spanish newspaper Marca made a bold claim on Saturday that Real Madrid have agreed personal deals with De Gea. The Spanish giants have offered him a five year deal where De Gea would earn €5m per year which will make him the highest paid goal keeper in the world. However, Real Madrid have yet to reach an agreement with Manchester United over the possible transfer.

Prior to Manchester United’s home game with Arsenal, a match that ended 1-1, reports circulated that De Gea went to all four corners of the Old Trafford stadium to wave to the Manchester United fans.

This is an unusual behaviour from the 24-year-old, and fans on Twitter saw this as a ‘Good bye’ message from their Spanish hero.

De Gea individually waves to each side of stadium. Ron Atkinson confirms on MUFC that this is not a normal pre match ritual. #goodbyeDave

— TheUnitedWay (@TheUnitedWay_) May 17, 2015

Louis van Gaal now added oil to the fire by saying De Gea has the chance now to leave the club, but United won’t sell him easily.

LVG on DDG: “He has the chance to go to another great club. He is Spanish. His girlfriend is Spanish. But he shall not leave easily.”

— Alex Shaw (@AlexShawESPN) May 17, 2015

Van Gaal is in here and talking about De Gea. “The transfer is an individual thing. He has to decide. We want him to stay.” #mufc — Daniel Taylor (@DTguardian) May 17, 2015

De Gea has a contract till 2016. The message here is pretty clear. United do feel that they are helpless in persuading De Gea to stay despite being presented with a lucrative contract. The player wants to leave, mainly to be united with his girl friend, and the club have to respect his decision.

The best thing United can do here is to get the best deal out of the transfer. United are reportedly looking for other options to replace De Gea – Chelsea’s Petr Cech & Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris are being considered as potential targets.