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 his contract with Manchester United expired, De Gea confirmed he would be leaving Old Trafford after 12 years at the club. United had scheduled face-to-face talks with the Spaniard about the possibility of staying, despite their well-documented turnaround in a new deal.

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

United’s fan base is deeply divided and rarely agrees on anything, but it will be difficult to find supporters happy with the way De Gea’s departure has been handled.

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

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

But De Gea – who joined United in 2011 as a skinny, skinny 20-year-old – 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’s no wonder there has been widespread condemnation of the club, who offered him a substantial new contract, albeit at considerably less than his previous wage of £375,000 a week, before pulling the plug at the last minute .

De Gea, who has played more for United than any other goalkeeper in history, can be forgiven for feeling offended and annoyed by the way the club has handled his situation. He has done well to limit himself to just a single cryptic tweet about his future.

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Sadly, as others have pointed out, he’s not the only United star whose exit has been handled 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 didn’t get the farewell their stellar red shirt careers deserved. It’s a shame that De Gea has followed suit, a fact that Bruno Fernandes alluded to in his social media tribute on Saturday night.

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

It was he who had doubts about De Gea’s suitability to be the ball-playing keeper he demands in his teams, and it is the United boss who is leading the charge in the £43million pursuit of Inter Milan’s Andre Onana.

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

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

The Dutchman is fully within his right to want a new number 1. In fact, even the most ardent De Gea supporters would have found it difficult to advocate for the jersey to be kept next season.

In some respects, Ten Hag has also displayed a ruthlessness that was sorely lacking among his predecessors. For far too long at Old Trafford, top-average players have been able to stay well past their sell-by date, pocketing hundreds of thousands a week.

City rivals Manchester City are among those who have unhesitatingly parted ways with long-serving stalwarts, players who have been crucial to their rise to the top of English and European football.

But Ten Hag and United’s top flight will certainly look back at the De Gea saga and admit that while the decision to leave was the right thing to do for him, the way they achieved it leaves a lot to be desired.

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