Louis van Gaal claims David de Gea told one of his coaches he did not want to play for Manchester United in their first match of the season.

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Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea on the club's pre-season tour

For the second successive week, De Gea has not been included in United's match-day squad.

The 24-year-old will not feature against Aston Villa on Friday because Van Gaal is convinced he is not in the right frame of mind to play due to Real Madrid's interest in signing him.

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

In a new twist, Van Gaal revealed during an odd exchange on Thursday that De Gea had told his goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek he did not want to play against Tottenham.

Van Gaal gave his normal pre-match press conference in the Jimmy Murphy Centre at Carrington and then stunned the room by wandering over and sitting next to a journalist in the audience who had earlier questioned him about De Gea.

Van Gaal then offered to divulge information about De Gea.

Insisting his comments should be regarded as on the record, Van Gaal explained what had made him decide to drop De Gea from the Spurs game.

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De Gea does not want to play for Manchester United – Van Gaal

"We've talked with him (De Gea), he was fully agreed with our decision," the United boss said to the reporter, who was surprised Van Gaal had decided to come and sit next to him after the press conference had ended.

"I have one assistant coach (Albert Stuivenberg) and another assistant coach (Marcel Bout) so we speak about that kind of thing. We have a goalkeeping coach, Frans Hoek, I'm not doing everything alone.
"Frans Hoek, he has a meeting with David de Gea and he asks him, 'Do you want to play?'."

When the reporter asked about De Gea's reply, Van Gaal said it was: "No."

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, 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."
It was a bizarre episode that caught everyone by surprise.

The fact Van Gaal had revealed details of what De Gea presumably thought was a private conversation may well come as a shock to the former Atletico Madrid goalkeeper, who has received praise from his boss for his attitude recently.