Manchester United goalkeeper coach Eric Steele has explained their early swoop for former Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David De Gea. Steele, who brought De Gea to Sir Alex Ferguson's attention, said the United boss was determined not make the same mistake he did which saw him miss out on Petr Cech back in 2004.

Cech was on United's radar but Chelsea got there first, signing the then 21-year-old, a mistake Steele said Ferguson did not want to make again, which is why they moved quickly for De Gea.

"To be fair to the manager, he missed out on Cech when he was younger and didn't want to do this again," said Steele. "There weren't too many [keepers around]. Joe Hart was the other one.

"The manager just said 'if this guy is as good as we think he is and we've scouted him strongly then we don't want to miss out on him, like we did with Cech'."