MANCHESTER UNITED FAN VIEW: David de Gea’s appalling treatment showed a lack of class and respect

So it is farewell to David de Gea after all.

Just over a week after the expiry of his contract at Manchester United, De Gea confirmed that he would be leaving Old Trafford following 12 years at the club. United had been planning face-to-face talks with the Spaniard about the possibility of staying, despite their well-documented u-turn on a new deal.

In the end, De Gea decided to ‘seek a new challenge’ anyway. Few United supporters can blame him.

United’s fanbase is deeply fractured and rarely agrees on anything, but you’d be hard pressed to find supporters who are happy with the way De Dea’s departure was handled.

Yes, he has been responsible for more errors this season than you could count on two hands and there is certainly merit to the argument that his exit, however messy, is best for all concerned, especially as he clearly doesn’t fit Erik ten Hag’s style.

David de Gea has left Manchester United following a fruitful 12 years at the club

The Spaniard does not fit Erik ten Hag’s style and made a number of costly errors last season

But De Gea – who joined United as a scrawny, skinny 20-year-old in 2011 – deserved better. The appalling treatment of one of the club’s longest-serving players – a man who made 545 appearances and was often a rare beacon of light in a period in the doldrums for the once great Red Devils – showed a lack of class and respect.

It is little wonder there has been widespread condemnation of the club, who offered him a substantial new contract, albeit on significantly less than his previous £375,000-a-week wages, before pulling the plug at the last minute.

De Gea, who has played for United more times than any other goalkeeper in history, could be forgiven for feeling aggrieved and irritated by the way the club have dealt with his situation. He has done well to limit himself to just the odd cryptic tweet about his future.

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Sadly, as others have pointed out, he isn’t the only United star whose departure has been handled in this way. And he won’t be the last.

David Beckham, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy are just some of the United icons who weren’t given the send-off their stellar careers in the red shirt deserved. It is a shame De Gea has followed suit, a fact alluded to by Bruno Fernandes in his social media tribute on Saturday evening.

Like Sir Alex Ferguson before, Ten Hag himself has seemingly been behind this latest apparent shunning of a United legend.

It is he who had reservations over De Gea’s suitability to be the ball-playing goalkeeper he demands in his teams, and it is the United boss who is spearheading the £43million pursuit of Inter Milan’s Andre Onana.

The Dutchman is well within his rights to want a new No 1. Indeed, even the most ardent De Gea backers would have found it tough to make a case for him keeping the shirt next season.

De Gea was one of the last remaining Premier League champions at the club and deserved to be treated better after 12 years of service

Club legend Roy Keane (centre) also left Old Trafford under a cloud after winning 12 trophies

Ten Hag has, in some ways, also demonstrated a ruthlessness that had been severely lacking under his predecessors. For far too long at Old Trafford, bang-average players have been able to stay far beyond their sell-by date, pocketing hundreds of thousands a week in the process.

Cross-town rivals Manchester City are among those who have happily parted with long-serving stalwarts, players who have been crucial to their rise to the summit of English and European football, without a second thought.

But Ten Hag and the United top brass will surely look back at the De Gea saga and admit that, while the decision for him to depart was the correct course of action, the way they handled it leaves a lot to be desired.

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