Mata happy speculation is behind him

Juan Mata has revealed he grew frustrated at the amount of speculation about his future in the summer.

Mata had been tipped to leave Old Trafford following Jose Mourinho's appointment as Manchester United after being sold by the Portuguese coach during his time at Chelsea.

Despite reports claiming that Mourinho was considering giving Mata's number eight jersey to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Spaniard has been a key player for United since the start of the season.

Reflecting on the summer, Mata admits the speculation did get to him but he insists there was no truth in the reports.

"It gets to you because, even if you don't read [the newspapers], then a friend or a family member calls you and says, what is this, what is that, are you moving here, are you moving there?" he told talkSport.

"There was a lot of things said that I didn't like and they were not true - that was the big problem. If they say something that is maybe happening then that is fine but, [when they are] creating stories, I don't like [it].

"They were saying that I was leaving, that I was going to this club, that I was speaking to this club, that I had conversations with the manager about this, that I was changing my number – a lot of things that were not true.

"Every single day you can try and stop it by saying 'this is not true' but then you get crazy or you can do what I did which is, 'OK, you can say whatever you want, I know what is going on, I know the truth and I prefer to stay focused on what I have to do'. My mind was fully focused on that.

"I replied to my friends and my family and told them nothing was true and that was it."

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