Víctor Valdés responds to Louis van Gaal’s criticism

Víctor Valdés has responded to Louis van Gaal’s criticism of his commitment after being told by the Manchester United manager that he will be sold because he refused to play for the reserves last season.

Van Gaal revealed the reason for leaving the Spaniard out of United’s pre-season tour of America which started on Monday.

“He is not selected because he does not follow my philosophy. There is not one place for one player – the philosophy is how you play football and how you maintain your match rhythm. For example, he refused last year to play in our second team.

“That is one aspect of our philosophy but there are a lot of others for how you play like a goalkeeper for Manchester United,” said the Dutchman. “When you are not willing to follow the principles of the philosophy there is only one way and that is out.”

Valdés took to Twitter on Thursday morning, posting a montage of photos that showed a number of reserve-team matches he had played in, in an apparent attempt to respond to Van Gaal’s criticism of his commitment.

Asked if Valdés, who is 33 and has a year remaining on the 18-month contract he signed in January, would be sold, Van Gaal said: “Yes.”

The manager admitted his dismay at the attitude of a player who had been given the chance to rehabilitate himself after the serious knee injury he suffered when playing for Barcelona last year.

“Yeah, for us it is a big disappointment. We thought he will follow our philosophy but it is a pity because we have given him an opportunity to rehabilitate and then we gave him a contract. Then when he is fit to play and when you are not playing in the first selection you have to play in the second. He refused that.”

David de Gea’s hamstring injury at the end of last season meant Van Gaal chose Valdés to start the final game at Hull City. Asked why the manager did so, given Valdés’– who had previously played in three reserve matches – show of bad attitude, Van Gaal said: “I want to help him so that he can show his qualities for another club. I am always a very social human being.”

Perspective

Van Gaal refused to discuss why he had allowed Robin van Persie to leave for Fenerbahce but said he informed the Holland striker at the club’s golf day in May.

“I have said in a conversation with him and we have to keep it like that,” the manager said. “He knows that already from the day we have played golf. After we played golf we talked abut the perspective for him at Manchester United.”

Was it difficult to allow Van Persie to leave? “Every decision is difficult. I go to watch Fenerbahce because of Dirk Kuyt and I am always received in a very warm way and I think he shall like to be in that warm companionship in the club. I wish him all the best and I have also texted that to him.”

Bayern coup

Meanwhile Bayern Munich are set to seal the signing of Arturo Vidal from Juventus after the Italian Champions League finalists received an offer of €40m (£28m) for the Chilean midfielder.

Vidal’s agent, Fernando Felicevich, is in Munich finalising the deal for his client, who is ready to sign for the German champions. Juventus initially asked for €45m which Bayern countered with a €30m offer but a compromise now appears to have been reached, with the Bundesliga side set to pay €37m up front, and €3m in add-ons.

Vidal, who won the Copa América with Chile this summer, is currently one of the most sought-after players in Europe after playing a huge part in Juventus’s run to the Champions League final in Berlin, which they lost to Barcelona, and their domestic league triumph. Juventus are looking to replace Vidal with one of Schalke’s Julian Draxler, Chelsea’s Juan Cuadrado or Porto’s Alex Sandro.

Vidal, who joined Juventus from Bayer Leverkusen in 2011, was heavily linked with a move to Manchester United last summer while Arsenal, who had initially hoped he would join up with fellow Chilean Alexis Sánchez at the Emirates, dropped out of the race to sign him a couple of weeks ago.

Bayern are rebuilding their squad after two seasons with Pep Guardiola in which they have won the league comfortably on both occasions but fallen short in the Champions League. The attacking midfielder Douglas Costa has arrived from Shakhtar Donetsk for €35m and Bastian Schweinsteiger was allowed to join Manchester United for a fee of €20m.

There are ongoing concerns over the fitness of Franck Ribéry. The French forward, who missed a large part of last season, has not travelled with the rest of the squad to China and it is uncertain when he will be able to return.

Juventus, meanwhile, have also invested heavily this summer, bringing in Paulo Dybala, Sami Khedira and Mario Mandzukic.