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Victor Valdes didn't sign for Manchester United to see out his career on the bench.

Nor did he sign for United for one final pay day.

He signed with the sole intention of becoming the club's number one, a realistic target given his pedigree and what appeared to be an inevitable move to Real Madrid for David de Gea.

Such was his certainty that he'd go on to make the No.1 spot at Old Trafford his own, he confidently claimed as much to Manchester United supporters around the city.

And why wouldn't he? Valdes had left Barcelona a record breaker; he'd left as the club's best ever goalkeeper, according to Lionel Messi.

And Louis van Gaal, who took him to Manchester United, was only too aware of the keeper's quality.

(Image: MFC)

It was van Gaal who first gave Valdes his break at Barcelona. A break which the Spaniard went on to take complete advantage of, establishing himself as a club great. And it was van Gaal who signed him for United in January of 2015.

Yet it is - or was - a peculiar relationship. The pair were at war back in 2002 at a time when van Gaal was under enormous pressure at the Nou Camp.

Valdes had refused the chance to go out on loan because he was assured he would be the club's No.1, yet was dropped into the B team and reportedly told he would play for the youth side just two months into the season.

"It’s not that I didn’t want to play for the B-team. But van Gaal told me on a Thursday, and so on the Friday I had to train with the B-team and play that same Saturday and I told him that I needed a weekend to think about what the future held for me going back to the B-team and all the implications of that," Valdes went on to tell MailOnline.

"This was bearing in mind that he knew in the summer I had rejected the chance to move to Villarreal to play in the first division with them. It wasn’t so much that I felt betrayed by him but I at least wanted a weekend to think about it all."

Valdes outlasted van Gaal and would go on to break many a record with Barca. And the pair made peace.

So much so, he jumped at the chance to join Manchester United as he searched for a fresh challenge following his Nou Camp departure.

Yet, considering Andy Mitten, the editor of Manchester United fanzine United We Stand , who lives in Catalonia, was once told the pair were "like two bulls in the same pen", it's no real surprise a second fall-out followed.

Valdes had arrived at Carrington in the October of 2014, initially to complete his rehab after a cruciate knee injury. He would be offered an 18-month contract at the club just three months later.

Within six months, Valdes and van Gaal were at loggerheads once more. The Under-21 row reared its head again but there was more to it than that.

"United's players have voiced their reservations about Louis van Gaal's training at Carrington this season but none as volubly as Valdes," wrote Samuel Luckhurst in the Manchester Evening News.

The ostracising of Valdes must have put Manchester United goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek in a difficult position. Hoek is said to be the advisor van Gaal relied on most heavily.

And it was Hoek who spent many an hour on the training pitches at Barcelona developing the game of Valdes and Pepe Reina, both teenagers at the time and very well thought of by club bosses as they developed through the famous academy.

Such were the hopes for both keepers, Hoek is understood to have dedicated one day every week to working with both young stoppers. And those who watched United regularly noted how David de Gea's game had "noticeably come on" after Valdes had started training with the squad.

Despite everything that went on at Old Trafford, there's no bitterness. No grude.

"He (van Gaal) discovered me at the age of 20," Valdes told reporters in Belgium after his move to Standard Liege last season.

"After my injury he was the one who called me to come to United. You have to be grateful."

While being close to United's Spanish contingent - including Juan Mata and Ander Herrera - Valdes didn't spend too much time with them away from the training ground.

Despite his pedigree on the pitch, Valdes is known to keep himself to himself off it.

Yet that doesn't mean he shies away from responsibility. Anything but.

Ahead of his first appearance for United's Under-21s, the side's boss Warren Joyce told how he delivered a "brilliant" speech, a speech used by Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.

And he didn't see United as a whistle-stop tour. Valdes, along with his model wife, Yolanda Cardona, and three children, was house hunting in Manchester. He speaks respectable English as well.

He's said to have enjoyed spending time in a popular blues club in Manchester. There's one guaranteed customer if any aspiring entrepreneurs fancy opening a Teesside version down Linthorpe Road.

Despite lucrative offers from elsewhere, namely China - obviously - and the temptation of Champions League football in Turkey and Portugal, Valdes was keen to right the wrongs of his previous stint in England.

After his tempestuous spell with van Gaal, he sees Karanka as a manager he can trust . He was keen on the move to Boro from the minute he first discussed the possible switch with the head coach this summer.

The Boro boss was understandably delighted to get his man. The feeling, it seems, is mutual.