De Gea ‘asked’ to miss Spurs

Louis van Gaal claims David de Gea told one of his coaches he didn’t want to play in Manchester United’s first game of the season.

For the second week, De Gea is not in United’s match day squad, this time against Aston Villa tonight, because Van Gaal is convinced he isn’t in the right frame of mind.

That was the reason the Dutchman cited last week for leaving De Gea out of his squad for opening win against Tottenham.

Van Gaal revealed during an odd exchange on Thursday that De Gea had told his goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek he didn’t want to play Tottenham - odd because after the pre-match press conference he sat by one of the journalists and offered to talk about De Gea - on the record.

He told the reporter the his assistants had spoken with the player, who had said he didn’t want to play

Van Gaal added: “Then I have to take the decision. It is a process. We had been observing him in preparation - he was not so good, not the same David de Gea as before. He was my best player last season.” The bizarre episode caught everyone by surprise.

Van Gaal hopes to sign at least one player before the window closes. Pedro, who scored the winning goal in Barcelona’s 5–4 victory over Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup on Tuesday, is the kind of penetrative, pacy forward United need.