Louis van Gaal’s falling out with Victor Valdes has meant that the Spanish goalkeeper hasn’t played for the club since the final game of last season. Valdes reportedly claimed that he didn’t need to play in any more U-21 games for fitness purposes, which lead to a row with the manager, and after a summer transfer move away broke down, the goalkeeper isn’t allowed to even attend the training ground at Carrington when the rest of his team mates are there.

Ahead of Spain’s successful Euro 2016 qualifying game against Luxembourg, Juan Mata played a diplomatic role when asked about the situation.

I speak from the outside, because I don’t really want to talk to the manager about it or Víctor, but it’s a pity. Víctor is a fantastic goalkeeper who had a bad injury at a crucial time in his career and it feels like everything has gone badly for him since then. I expect and I hope, because I really like him and we have shared a lot in Manchester over these months, that things go well for him, whether that’s at Manchester United or somewhere else. I imagine that if you spoke to Víctor he would have his reasons and if you spoke to the manager he would have his reasons too. It’s very unfortunate.