New Contract

[Noucamp99]

Ritchie De Laet has been offered a new contract by United. This has been reported on SSN today, which is good news, as personally, I think he is a tremendous prospect for the future. I saw him play right back and he looked like he'd been there for ever. He can play anywhere across the back, so a bonus!

There may be good news on the horizon for Danny Welbeck, too:

Full story from Sky Sports News:

Manchester United have handed a new contract to Belgian starlet Ritchie de Laet. The 20-year-old defender only joined United in January, when The Red Devils raided Stoke City to capture him.

He has impressed Sir Alex Ferguson since the move and is now on the verge of the first-team. And his progress has been rewarded with a new three-year deal.

"Alex Ferguson told me I'm very close to the first team," he told The Sun.

"There has been talk of me going out on loan but Sir Alex said I can't leave as he may need me. The new contract is a surprise and fantastic news."

It is also reported that Danny Welbeck is also close to agreeing a new three-year contract at Old Trafford.

[reillyg]

Great news.

When De Laet signed I was a bit scepticle, signing players from Stoke's reserves is not usually a good move. But he has peen fantastic, both defencivly and going forward and he is versitlie too.

I think it shows how good our scouting and coaching is, at Stoke he never got a look in but now he would probably be first choice for them.

[DaleDaManc]

now lets raid stoke for shawcross he's quality

[blah_united]

de leat will have to play at the top of his game if he wants to be first choice above all our right backs

[Noucamp99]

I'm not so sure about that. He already looks a good player and is strong and quite pacy. He looks a little like Gary Neville in terms of style of play. I've even seen him haul down a player who has just gone past him, just like the (old) master, lol!

As for Shawcross, well, he must have improved a heck of a lot at Stoke, or be surrounded by poorer players, otherwise United would not have let him go to Stoke in the first place:

"The 21-year-old was relatively unknown outside of Old Trafford when he joined the Potters on a season-long loan from Manchester United in the summer of 2007 but he did so well in his first five months at the Britannia Stadium that Tony Pulis moved to make the deal permanent in January 2008.

City agreed a deal of £2,000,000 with United but Ryan has proved a snip after establishing himself as a regular in the Premier League and in Stuart Pearce's England Under-21 squad."

Source: Stoke City.com

[reillyg]

Apparently we have first option on Shawcross.

So if Liverpool made an offer to Stoke for him, Stoke would phone us up as tell us, and if we match the bid we get him.