Real Madrid Must Put David De Gea Transfer Saga Behind Them for Their Own Good

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez dragged up the David De Gea transfer saga on Thursday night as he criticised Manchester United, but perhaps the best thing for Real Madrid would now be to let it go.

The Los Blancos chief appeared on El Larguero, a Spanish radio programme on Cadena Ser, and claimed that the English side "lacked experience" in the transfer market.

Per Sport, he said: "I think that United lack the experience in these matters. It happened before with [Fabio] Coentrao and again with Athletic Club and Ander Herrera."

The president went into detail on the whole failed transfer, raking up the details about the FIFA TMS system and their dealings with the English side.

This is after the club already released a 10-point statement about De Gea and Manchester United replied with their own, hitting back at Los Blancos.

That's why it's understandable that Perez might want to retort further, just to have the final word on the issue.

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His ego will have taken a bruising, too, as Madrid ended the summer window without the man we have known for months that they were desperate to bring to the Santiago Bernabeu.

According to AS, he added on the show: "Over a year ago we realized that the future of the goalkeeping position at Real Madrid was De Gea because he was the most adequate candidate. Later, Keylor arrived, and we are very satisfied with him."

But there are several reasons to stop talking about De Gea and concentrate on the season ahead.

The first is for the sake of Navas, the Costa Rican stopper who now knows the club didn't trust him to keep goal for them this season. If they did, they would have waited to sign De Gea for free next summer.

Navas is first-choice at Madrid and has kept two clean sheets in his first two games, away at Sporting Gijon and at home against Real Betis.

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Although they are two of the promoted sides, he has still done well, including saving a Ruben Castro penalty in the second game.

Hopefully, from a Madrid perspective, his confidence will not be shaken by the events of deadline day, which saw him agree a deal with Manchester United.

A positive is that the fans at the Bernabeu have taken to him, singing his name during the Betis clash, and they will help him regain the right mind-set.

Secondly, dwelling on the failure to sign De Gea is not what new manager Rafa Benitez will want the focus to be on during the early period of his tenure at the club.

Instead, he will prefer to look at how tight that defence has been so far, with six clean sheets in eight games, including friendlies.

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Furthermore, after criticism over the lack of goals in pre-season, racking up five in the first match at home has silenced the critics on that front, at least for the time being.

Perez has had his say, not once but twice, and enough is enough.

Madrid did not sign De Gea, they still might in January, or more likely at the end of the season, although one school of thought is that he is unimpressed with the club for not pushing harder to get him earlier in the summer.

That matter may raise its head at some point, but Perez should realise there is no need to delve deeper into the issue from a Madrid perspective and now it's time to get on with the season ahead.