David de Gea has contradicted reports that he and Louis van Gaal do not enjoy a good relationship.
The goalkeeper’s contract expires in summer 2016, he is yet to sign a new one and reports in Spain this week said he has not spoken to the Dutch manager for months. But speaking to MUTV on Friday, De Gea denied there was any truth in those reports.
“Everything that has been written in the press about us not getting on is a lie,” he said. “We both want the best for the club and the team, and the stories are complete lies.”
United are hopeful the 24-year-old will agree terms and the club was offered encouragement by De Gea stating he is currently particularly happy. “I think this is the best period of my career,” he said. “I am playing the best football that I’ve ever played. I’m really enjoying it at the moment and I’m just trying to improve with every training session and every game that goes by, giving 100% and concentrating to the maximum. That’s the way I want to continue.”
After United lost 2-1 at Swansea City last week De Gea is keen the team bounces back by defeating Sunderland at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“Yes, we were on a good run of results and winning some important games but the other day at Swansea we lost the game. I don’t think we deserved to lose but football can be like that,” he said. “You go to tough away grounds and you lose points sometimes. We have to move on from that as now we face Sunderland and we need to concern ourselves with that test.”
Ángel Di María, the British record £59.7m signing, admits he has not always been at his best since joining from Real Madrid. “I’ve had a couple of games where things haven’t gone as well as they could have,” he said. “I think it’s part of that settling-in process to the English game. I started off quite well but I think that made expectations then rise and everyone thought that I would just carry on in the same way.
“It took me a while to settle in fully in each of the countries where I’ve played before. But I just have to keep working hard and focusing on what I want, which is to do as well as I possibly can.”
Of United’s campaign so far Di María said: “I think it’s been going quite well. We’re in fourth place, fighting for a Champions League spot, which was the main aim, bringing Manchester United back into that competition. We’ve got a tough game coming up in the FA Cup against Arsenal, so we are there or thereabouts in both competitions, fighting hard to achieve something big.”
