Louis van Gaal says that goalkeeper Victor Valdés will be sold this summer because the Spaniard refuses to follow the Dutchman’s philosophy. In a damming assessment Van Gaal accused the 33-year-old former Barcelona player of refusing to play in United’s under-21 side last season – supposedly a key tenet of the Dutchman’s fitness regime.
“Philosophy is how you play football and how you maintain your match rhythm,” Van Gaal said.
“There are a lot of aspects in the philosophy of how you have to play like a goalkeeper at Manchester United. When you are not willing to follow the principles of the philosophy, then there is only one way and that is out.”
Valdés initially joined United last October, training with Van Gaal’s squad in a bid to recover from the anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained against Celta Vigo in March 2014. After proving his fitness Valdés inked an 18-month contract with United in January.
“It is a big disappointment,” added Van Gaal. “It is a pity because we have given him the opportunity to rehabilitate, gave him a contract and then he is fit to play. If you do not play in the first team, our philosophy is to play in the second team and he did not do that.”
However, Valdés used his Instagram feed to hit back, posting a quartet of pictures – three of under-21 fixtures in which the Spaniard featured and a photo of the stopper with his young team-mates – alongside the hashtag “respect.”
It’s a pointed message from the Spanish international; one that suggests two sides to this story. So is Van Gaal right to sell Valdés this summer?
[poll id=”102″]
who?
yes he is unprofessional f****r
yes! if he can’t stick to the philosophy..
Er….. Yes.
yeah
We have to trust the manager.
Nope if de gea leaves and Valdes leaves were fucked
Two sides to this story? Quite probably. However in football, ‘might is right’ and in this situation van Gaal has all the power, fairly or unfairly.
Pre-season hasn’t even started and we are being subjected to references to the phoolosophy. Slagging off Valdez so publicly from thousands of miles away is unnecessary. Whatever the full story, it’s not great to see United airing its dirty washing on a transatlantic clothes line.
Fascinating – and unexpected – development.
In the larger picture, however, VV was an “insurance policy” in the event that DDG could force through the move to RM.
Now – to everyone’s surprise – LvG’s big balls seem to have been so impressive that Ed Woodward has grown his own pair.
So, UTD now have RM in a bind – can they really go in to next season without either SaintIker or DDG and expect to compete against Barca ?
Perhaps the next move from UTD might be to talk up a rather different swap-deal – DDG to Athletico Madrid for Oblak. THAT would be a real stick-in-the-eye for RM. After all, DDG wants to go back to Madrid, but not necessarily to RM.
Growing a pair of balls is fine as long as Woodie doesn’t take his eye off the main one.
I agree with the DDG to Athletico Madrid angle.
No chance. Atletico won’t pay him 250k p/w, but Utd and Real Madrid will.
Is this the season two breakdown in player relations we were told to expect? Who knows. I didn’t like here Van Gaal talk about it to the press, but oh well.