David de Gea rejects claims he refused to play for Manchester United

According to reports in the Daily Mail, sources close to David de Gea reject the idea that the Spanish goalkeeper refused to play in meetings with United coaching staff.

The article goes on to say that the decision to drop De Ge in place of Sergio Romero was taken by Louis van Gaal and his coaching team alone.

It might be that United and Van Gaal are excommunicating De Gea from the first team squad, and getting their retaliation in first. It benefits United - if properly handled - to paint De Gea as an unprofessional strop-thrower who could not possibly be kept out of the clutches at Real Madrid.

Of course, that would mean that questions wouldn't be asked of Ed Woodward as to why he didn't tie De Gea down to a longer contract two years ago, when he was plainly already one of the very best goalkeepers in the world.

Jasper Cillessen and Hugo Lloris are the two obvious replacements.