David De Gea will enter the list of Manchester United’s top 10 appearance makers when he starts against Bournemouth in the Premier League tonight.
That is the same tally that the late Joe Spence registered during his 14 years at the club between 1919 and 1933, during which time, he also scored 168 goals.
De Gea could well move into 10th position outright on Friday night when United welcome Everton to the Theatre of Dreams in the Emirates FA Cup third round.
This latest landmark is a huge achievement and one that should not be underestimated, particularly when you consider the iconic names who populate the list.
It is led by Ryan Giggs and his mind-boggling tally of 963 appearances, followed by Sir Bobby Charlton on 758 and Paul Scholes on 718.
Bill Foulkes (688), Gary Neville (602), Wayne Rooney (559), Alex Stepney (539), Tony Dunne (535) and Denis Irwin (529) make up the legendary group.
After Bournemouth, there are a minimum of 26 fixtures left to play this season - 22 in the league, plus four cups - and that means De Gea could potentially leapfrog Dunne into eighth place by the close of 2022/23.
If we progress deep into the Carabao Cup, Emirates FA Cup and Europa League, then David could comfortably overtake Alex Stepney in seventh position.
Check out the list here…
TOP APPEARANCE MAKERS
= 10: David De Gea (510)
= 10: Joe Spence (510)
9: Denis Irwin (529)
8: Tony Dunne (535)
7: Alex Stepney (539)
6: Wayne Rooney (559)
5: Gary Neville (602)
4: Bill Foulkes (688)
3: Paul Scholes (718)
2: Sir Bobby Charlton (758)
1: Ryan Giggs (963)
ANOTHER MILESTONE MOMENT?
Last weekend's 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers propelled De Gea above Alex Stepney on United's all-time clean sheets chart.
David has 176 to his name at the time of writing and only one man can boast more: the iconic Peter Schmeichel, who kept 180 clean sheets between 1991 and 1999.
It doesn't take a maths genius to note that De Gea needs five more to overtake the Great Dane and, results pending, that could even, in theory, happen against Arsenal later this month.
During a recent interview to mark his 500th appearance, De Gea looked forward to entering the top 10 and potentially breaking our clean sheets record.
“It’s not easy,”
said David. “It’s difficult to reach that many games. A clean sheet as well, every year, it’s more difficult to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League so, yeah, I feel very, very proud and probably, like I said already, I’ll realise more when I stop playing football and check and say ‘look at what I did in this club’.
”But now it’s time to keep doing more: more games, more clean sheets and help the team even more.”
TOP 10 CLEAN SHEETS
10: Frank Barrett (54)
9: Ray Wood (55)
8: Jack Crompton (67)
7: Harry Moger (92)
6: Alfred Steward (96)
5: Edwin van der Sar (135)
4: Gary Bailey (161)
3: Alex Stepney (175)
2: David De Gea (176)
1: Peter Schmeichel (180)