[devo22]

van Gaal preparing the fans for the inevitable DDG sale by setting him up as the bad guy, I guess.

However, Van Gaal also said the origins of that decision came from a meeting eight days ago when, according to the United manager, De Gea was asked outright if he wanted to play and told the club’s coaching staff he did not want to be involved because he was too distracted. That, in turn, prompted Van Gaal to hold a separate meeting with his assistants, when they decided they should remove De Gea from their plans and bring the Argentina international Sergio Romero into the team, since Víctor Valdés had already burnt his bridges at Old Trafford.

“We talked with him [De Gea] and he fully agreed with our decision,” Van Gaal said. “I have one assistant coach and another assistant coach so we speak about that kind of thing together. We have a goalkeeping coach, Frans Hoek, and I’m not doing everything alone.

“Frans Hoek … he has a meeting with David de Gea and he asked him: ‘Do you want to play?’” Asked what the response was, Van Gaal said: “‘No.’ Then I have to take the decision. It is a process. We had been observing him in preparation, he was not so good, he was not the same David de Gea as before. He was my best player last season. According to the fans, he was the best of the last two years.”

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...chester-united