• Van Gaal says goalkeeper was asked if he wanted to play and said no • Manager also confirms his interest in Barcelona’s Pedro

David de Gea’s increasingly fragile position at Manchester United has been further destabilised after Louis van Gaal took the unexpected decision to go public with new details about the current standoff behind the scenes at Old Trafford, including the damaging revelation that the goalkeeper expressly told the club he did not want to be part of the team.

Van Gaal, who confirmed his interest in the Barcelona attacker Pedro, said he will continue to leave out De Gea at Aston Villa on Friday because he does not think the Spaniard can be relied upon when he has been pinning his hopes all summer on a move to Real Madrid.

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.

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“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.”

Van Gaal’s revelations came after a press conference when he had been asked about De Gea’s position and made it clear there was no change – “he remains out of the squad” – before saying it would be better to discuss it in a “more intimate setting later”. At the end of his conference, he took a seat beside the journalist who had asked him whether De Gea actually wanted to play and, clarifying that he was still talking on-the-record, proceeded to say it was the goalkeeper’s wish to be left out of the squad.

His comments were unusual, not just in the way they were delivered but because they also go against the club’s usual policy of trying to keep private conversations in-house. De Gea’s camp have been saying that he would have been happy to play and that it was wrong of Van Gaal to say he was not fully focused. Van Gaal’s version of events sheds an entirely new light on the affair, with little over two weeks to determine whether De Gea will get the move he craves or be left contemplating a difficult season running down the final year of his contract at a club he plainly wants to leave.

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Van Gaal was asked whether De Gea could win his place back if he was still in Manchester after the transfer window closes. “That depends on Romero and his form,” he said. United did, however, later stipulate they had no issues with De Gea’s professionalism.

While Madrid have been eyeing up De Gea without coming up with a suitable fee, United hope their pursuit of Pedro will be a much quicker affair and are waiting for the Barcelona player to let them know if he is willing to leave the Champions League and La Liga winners. “You have to ask Pedro, not me,” Van Gaal said. “My answer is that it’s a process between a club and a player, and we are there also. I don’t mention anything before he has signed. When he has signed I will come to you and say: ‘Hey, Pedro is here.’ That is not the case and we shall wait to see.”

Van Gaal was reminded he had spoken previously about bringing in more fast, penetrative players now Ángel Di María had left for Paris Saint-Germain. “I hear, and Pedro is a player like that,” he said. “So write it.”

As it is, Van Gaal’s lack of attacking options led to him saying he wanted to keep Javier Hernández, albeit only as Wayne Rooney’s understudy, when United were previously keen to sell him. He also stated Adnan Januzaj was “still not for sale” but Sunderland have approached United about a loan arrangement for a player who did not even get on the bench against Spurs last weekend. The likelihood is that a deal will be finalised if Pedro joins but there is also a chance PSG will move for him as well.