Louis van Gaal will ‘ruin Pedro’: Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov warns

Stoichkov won five La Liga titles and the 1992 Champions League as a Barca player but left the Camp Nou shortly after Van Gaal’s arrival in 1997.

He said: “When there are rumours that I can leave it is not an easy situation for me”. He also won the Ballon d’Or in 1994.

In fact, only two thirds of all his league appearances over the last three seasons have been starts (66 out of 100), and he has been brought off in just over a third of all games in which he has featured (36 out of 100).

The 28-year-old has been lined up by Manchester United to replace Angel Di Maria, who moved to Paris Saint-Germain last week, report the Manchester Evening News.

Against Tottenham in Saturday’s Premier League opener, United were somewhat lacking in attacking flair, grinding out a win only after a Kyle Walker own goal.

Van Gaal’s United is still taking shape, and with Pedro in the side it will be somewhat more distinguishable.

Stoichkov though did not want to see this move happen and stated his desire for Pedro to stay in Catalonia rather than go to Manchester.

Pedro’s future could be decided over the next 48 hours and United remain firm favourites to activate the £22 million buy-out clause in his contract. Thierry Henry believes Pedro would be a flawless fit at United.

“We are not going to accept less than €30 million for him, it’s not negotiable”. “Pedro is a guy who I would never sell, I never sell a committed guy, a guy with energy, a guy who struggles to be great”.

Pedro Rodriguez as he lines up for Barcelona.

However, the delay of the move may have been connected with Barcelona star Neymar’s sudden illness, as the Brazilian has contracted mumps that leaves him sidelined for at least two weeks.

The transfer window remains open until the end of the month leaving plenty of time for a deal to materialise.

Robson compared the De Gea saga to that surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo who had his heart set on a move to Real from United but gave the English club a superb final season before finally moving on. That takes place this Friday for a one-off Friday game this season.