⚽️ Two Premier League Icons May Not Be Finished After All

Good morning. There is a solid slate of international matches today featuring many Premier League stars wearing their national colors. We will touch on those results tomorrow. Today, we focus on two transcendent talents — one out of work, one recently retired — and the smoke on their names that may or may not mean fire.

In the email today:

Manchester United made a very curious choice in the summer. David de Gea, who led the Premier League in shutouts last season, was not offered a new contract. Instead, United spent £47.2M to bring André Onana in from Inter Milan to take de Gea’s place. Onana has been pretty bad so far, and in a related story, guess who was just in town?

• David de Gea left Manchester United in the summer after a successful 12-season stint at the club, during which he won several major trophies.

• Despite his success and being the reigning Premier League Golden Glove winner, he remains a free agent.

• De Gea has been seen in Manchester recently, coinciding with Onana's struggles as his replacement at United.

• Onana has conceded 16 goals in his first 11 appearances and notable errors.

• Separately, de Gea has been linked with a move to Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League and several other European clubs, including Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Sevilla, and Real Betis, but no deal has materialized yet.

Our take: What’s with these Premier League teams fixing stuff that isn’t broken? David de Gea was not the reason Manchester United was totally average last season — without him last season they probably would have missed the Champions League places. This smacks of Mikel Arteta sitting Aaron Ramsdale for David Raya for seemingly no reason at all. Do we think de Gea is coming back to Manchester United? Not really. This story just underscores how wrongheaded United was to let him go in the first place.

2) 🇧🇪 West Ham United Hoping Eden Hazard’s Retirement Is Short-Lived?

Chelsea legend and Real Madrid disappointment Eden Hazard has had about 72 hours or so to enjoy his retirement. This is what happens when a player of Hazard’s talent retires at 32. If Hazard was 36, no one would be bothering him. But at least one Premier League team thinks Hazard has plenty of tread left on the tires.

• West Ham coach Kevin Nolan is open to giving Hazard a trial at the Premier League club.

• Nolan had faced Hazard during the Belgian's prime years at Chelsea and believes Hazard still has more to offer in football.

• Nolan drew a parallel with Paul Scholes, who briefly retired before returning to help Manchester United win the Premier League.

• Hazard had a successful stint at Chelsea from 2012 to 2019, winning multiple Premier League titles and other trophies.

• Hazard’s time at Real Madrid was marred by injuries and a loss of form, leading to his decision to retire.

Our take: We don’t think this will actually happen. Hazard seems to have a lot more Gareth Bale than Paul Scholes in him. We’re also not sure Hazard would return to the league with a solid-but-unspectacular outfit like West Ham. If Hazard comes back, it’d probably be with Chelsea. Now that, we would pay to see.

3) ❌ of the Day: If My Aunt Had B@lls, She’d Be My Uncle

(Checks notes) yeah but they’re using VAR this season.

4) 🗳️ Poll: Would You Want Eden Hazard to Unretire and Join Your Favorite EPL Team?

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

5) 🔗 Links Roundup:

• 🔴 Manchester United’s Harry Maguire popped off about his lack of playing time.

• 🇮🇱 Premier League clubs are being extremely careful about their responses to the conflict in Israel.

• ⬇️ United’s Mason Mount and Arsenal’s Kai Havertz top one list of notable summer transfer busts.

• 🏈 Burnley minority owner and retired NFL star J.J. Watt has jokes about wanting to bring Lionel Messi in.

The newsletter today was written by Phil Keidel. Follow Phil @philkeidel on X.

Thanks for reading!