The truth about Víctor Valdés and Manchester United For most of his career Victor Valdés Arribas has lived the dream.

Now, for the former Barcelona goalkeeper who has won 21 titles, including six La Ligas and three Champions Leagues as well as five Zamora awards for the goalkeeper with the lowest goals per game record in the Spanish league, the dream has turned into a nightmare.

On the precarious tightrope that is football’s fickle fortune, these days he cuts a forlorn figure; ostracized, isolated and marginalized by the club that he had hoped to represent at the highest level.

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So how did we get to here? How did one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of the game end up unwanted at a club where he is now forced to train alone with just a goalkeeping coach for company?

Much has been written about Valdés’ short but controversial spell with Manchester United, a great deal of it based on assumption, rumour and conjecture. Sometimes bald facts blur what is the simple truth which is that as far as he is concerned, firstly, he has nothing but affection for everyone at Manchester United, and, secondly he is 100-percent fit and raring to continue his career.

The position taken by Louis van Gaal is purely a footballing one. That Valdés should end up mentally bloodied and deeply affected by events will represent to him no more or no less than yet another example of the collateral damage the game so frequently creates.

So where did it all go wrong?

In truth, from the moment he decided that his days at Barcelona were done, the matter has been handled dreadfully; mistakes were made, mistakes that would prove costly.
Many months before the end of his contract with Barcelona, he had agreed a deal to join Monaco. This was at a time when the French side were very busy in the market, signing players like Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez, and Valdés was to be another jewel in the crown being fashioned in the millionaires’ playground.

Error number one occurred when the deal with Monaco was not correctly tied up. When on the 26th of March 2014 in a match against Celta Vigo, Valdés suffered a freak, serious cruciate knee ligament injury, Monaco had a way out and their interest didn’t so much wane as totally evaporate.

By the time of the injury the club had already started to tone down their profligate spending to the extent that they were now actually selling some of their previous expensive signings and Valdes’ misfortune presented them with the perfect opportunity to backtrack on the deal.

Mistake number two occurred when instead of keeping quiet and just slipping away at the end of his contract he decided to call a press conference to announce his departure. Barcelona were not impressed.
With one year left on his contract, Monaco had wanted to sign Valdés for around six to seven million euros but Barcelona were having none of it.

Once recovered from his injury it soon became clear that both Liverpool and Manchester United wanted him. In October he had the option to sign for either of the two clubs. There were direct conversations with Brendan Rodgers and the then-Liverpool manager was certainly led to believe that Valdés loved Liverpool and would love to join the club.

In the end he opted for Manchester United mainly because of the chance to re-unite with Frans Hoek, the goalkeeping coach at United who he had worked with before.

He also knew that at this particular time David De Gea was thinking about leaving United to join Real Madrid. Valdés genuinely believed that United presented a better career opportunity than Liverpool at that point.

So following tests that showed he was 100-percent fit, he signed on the dotted line in January 2015.

His arrival at the club coincided with an upturn in the form of De Gea, who had been going through a sticky patch, and as a result van Gaal asked Valdés to play in the reserves for the time being.

Eager to get in some match practise and convinced it was only a matter of time before he graduated into the first team the goalkeeper agreed. Neither then, nor now, did he have any problem with the plan and as far as he could see what he was enjoying was a normal, professional relationship with van Gaal.