Agreed to disagree.
Bye bye Van Gaal | Really enjoying managerial retirement
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
Unique and hilarious character, wish him all the best even though he hates United, and I hope that his illness is gone forever.
I have a soft spot for him since he was the manager in the first ever cup final that I attended, and I'm very grateful for the memories from that day.
I have a soft spot for him since he was the manager in the first ever cup final that I attended, and I'm very grateful for the memories from that day.
I agree with you. And no one is talking about his first stint for Duch NT or his second time at Barca. Both were disasters.
Good young manager but he burned out fast.
Did a good job, the Dutch have some talented players but compared to other top teams it’s genuinely chalk and cheese in some areas. A quarter final is about right - semis would have been overachieving and they were only a shootout away.
VVD - had a good second half of the season last year but generally is on the wane post ACL and nowhere near the levels he was.
FDJ - often flatters to deceive
Gakpo/Depay - talented but doesn’t stack up to the attacking talent of other teams.
Overall his record with that bunch is superb imo, esp considering Belgium and Germanys fortunes.
VVD - had a good second half of the season last year but generally is on the wane post ACL and nowhere near the levels he was.
FDJ - often flatters to deceive
Gakpo/Depay - talented but doesn’t stack up to the attacking talent of other teams.
Overall his record with that bunch is superb imo, esp considering Belgium and Germanys fortunes.
Exactly.
LVG was a great manager but a difficult personality
Van Gaal fecking hates us
I know we did him dirty but he was an abysmal manager for us, played some of the worst football I’ve ever seen at the club.
LvG is one of the reasons for the big mess but I guess his ego won't accept that. His signings was the worst by any manager at this club.. Morgan, Bastian, Depay, Darmian, Rojo, Di Maria, Falcao and saying no to Kroos 
He wasn't wrong and we absolutely did him dirty. I was happy to see him go at the time, he was past it (as was his replacement), but he was a great manager and great personality who've I've a lot of time for (unlike his replacement).
Not here. Couldn't stand him as a manager for us.
Completely deserved to go. If any manager misses out on top 4 he simply has to go never mind the absolute shite he served up
if you have a lisp there is
If this is true I know Kraay will get a very angry call from Manchester to say this to the public when it obviously was something he told him in private.
Like an ex that just won’t leave us alone. Someone call the police.
I mean, this was already pretty open right? LVG told ETH that United wasn't a football club but a business club and advised not to go. Thankfully ETH can think for himself just right and I definitely respect him going for the challenge, with the confidence (and humility) to do excellent.
LVG has confidence, but instead of humility it's just/mostly ego. When things don't go his way, he tends to struggle. Perhaps United would've grown with him at the helm for longer, getting more young players into his mold, but you can't just demand everything to go your way. Pretend to be open to discussion all you want, but you're not. The way he's proud of his players at press conferences almost seems like he's proud of them saying LVG-stuff.
His return at Oranje reminds me in hindsight of Mourinho joining Spurs. The time off seemed to make him really chill, but after a few months, he just had to be special. Both of them can be great, but with details in the game rising to crazy degree, you have to be more adaptable. Managers like ETH aren't ashamed to have the same rules and demands of every player, but are also aware that people are still different and thus you cannot approach everyone in your own special "scientific" way. There is no one answer to most subjective questions, and in a dynamic world, the LVGs and Mou's are losing a lot of ground.
Remember it being even worse with managers like Magath. Bringing very clear structure when they just arrived, but after a while they just tear players down with their lack of adaptability and change to approach. Get fired, get hired, repeat. Wonder if in 10 years ETH isn't adaptable enough
but I feel like he finds a lot of balance (and seems highly reflective, as well), so I'll have faith in him for a long time.Van Gaal is a megalomanic cnut that will never ever put any blame on himself for anything. Having said that. It was kind of a mess at United surely? 
I always had a feeling he had Aspergers but even the world top psychologists would be too afraid to even suggest that to him.Van Gaal is a megalomanic cnut that will never ever put any blame on himself for anything. Having said that. It was kind of a mess at United surely?
But his press conferences ! HIS PRESS CONFERENCES !!
Ten Hag solved this by game week 3.
Maybe Van Gaal wasn’t good enough as a manager? He also told Timber not to join us as well.
He’s a bitter man
In fairness to LVG, his time at United coincided with a 'disneyland' phase at the club whereas ETH has landed after some upheaval behind the scenes and a real desire to return to our roots, hence the backing of ETH when he has had to take some big decisions. Nevertheless ETH done a job here that would still be beyond the reach of a latter day LVG.
How come EtH has been able to do much better?
Van Gaal is known to have turned down Kroos upon taking up the role. For £20m, and after he'd already proven himself at Bayern. About £7m less than the club later paid for Schneidelin. That's all you need to know about his latter-day judgment. Added to that, he was enough of a 'character' to scare Mane off signing, and thus inadvertently contributed to Liverpool's renaissance, and played 2 years of zombie football despite supposedly turning us into a 'thinking' team (seems he couldn't think up any cohesive lateral passing combinations). It was like watching someone play chess after a serious car-crash concussion, except for a new bright spots against liverpool at Juanfield, and for all his experience and contacts, he couldn't even think to bring in any genuinely promising players to mould from the dutch or german leagues..
LVG turned down Kroos when we had him in the bag and wanted to spend 100m on Muller when 100m was a feck tonne of money.
He literally complained when he found out United couldnt sign any player in the world because that’s what he thought of us before joining.
He wanted Disneyland, it wasn’t Disneyland enough for him
Woody is gone.
Nah, think it's narcissism. Initially magnetic, charming, funny until you say something he doesn't like, then he will try to publically shame and destroy you. Convinced some people are out to get him personally and in constant need of praise and adoration. Bit like Donald Trump, though substantially less evil.
He was fecking awful at Utd.
We had a 3 week run in his first season where we were good and the rest of the time was the absolute dullest football I've ever seen at Utd. It was brutal to watch.
The way he was sacked, with news leaking out before he was told, wasn't nice but he had to go. He was lucky he was kept on past Xmas 2015, a lot of big clubs would have sacked him there and then.
We had a 3 week run in his first season where we were good and the rest of the time was the absolute dullest football I've ever seen at Utd. It was brutal to watch.
The way he was sacked, with news leaking out before he was told, wasn't nice but he had to go. He was lucky he was kept on past Xmas 2015, a lot of big clubs would have sacked him there and then.
He was very likeable, but the football and the results were simply not good enough, end of.
LvG is one of the reasons for the big mess but I guess his ego won't accept that. His signings was the worst by any manager at this club.. Morgan, Bastian, Depay, Darmian, Rojo, Di Maria, Falcao and saying no to Kroos
He truly was a terrible in his time here.
Rubbish in the transfer market in terms of buys and sells and his dour "paint by numbers" football was just the worst.
For all the highly deserved criticism of Woodward, the problem wasn't just confined to his 'glamour' signings like Pogba, Di Maria but the numerous other, badly-chosen not-so-glamorous signings, whether Darmian or Schneidelin, or Bailly [ Mourinho era obv] etc (alongside the godawful coaching). Those weren't t-shirt or social media purchases or favours to Mendes, they were failures in manager and lead scouting capacity - there were lots of hungry, quick, potentially physically-capable and technically good moneyball talents floating around French, German, Dutch leagues who, added to a clutch signing or two (the 'right' kind of big-name, respect generating player, again partly down to the manager) could have seen us match Liverpool at the least.
So, even Bielsa's Leeds and Potter's Brighton (notwithstanding the clusterfeck of Chelsea Potter era) played more fluent and intelligent football later on than Van Gaal or most of the Mourinho era. That kind of game plan with the right young players, plus a suitable guaranteed striker using United-scale budget gets those sides into top 4, so we shouldn't have had any issues, even with playing ersatz Real Madrid 'Zidane and pavons' policy. For instance, if the club were going to splash the kind of money they did at the time, why not target it at Lewandowski' ((at Dortmund, or for the signing-fee when he was considering the move to Bayern)?
So, even Bielsa's Leeds and Potter's Brighton (notwithstanding the clusterfeck of Chelsea Potter era) played more fluent and intelligent football later on than Van Gaal or most of the Mourinho era. That kind of game plan with the right young players, plus a suitable guaranteed striker using United-scale budget gets those sides into top 4, so we shouldn't have had any issues, even with playing ersatz Real Madrid 'Zidane and pavons' policy. For instance, if the club were going to splash the kind of money they did at the time, why not target it at Lewandowski' ((at Dortmund, or for the signing-fee when he was considering the move to Bayern)?
I know this is a 5 month old post, but: The bolded sentence could have been applied a few times when discussing our own managers in the past. Mayhaps.
We go for it!
His football was horrid, but I still have a soft spot for him due to the way he made me laugh.
His football was horrid, but I still have a soft spot for him due to the way he made me laugh.
He was right though, we were in a big mess. He didn't help with his stint after gutting the squad which meant we had to play the likes of Donald Love and Paddy McNair
LVG "NO! DON'T GOT FOR IT"
ETH "heh"
ETH "heh"
It's not surprising van Gaal would've been warning ten Hag off taking the job. His experience as United manager was a poor one, the football operations at the club weren't right at the time and his time at the club ended in unfortunate circumstances.
I think there's a world in which van Gaal is right to feel let down by United, but it's also clear he wasn't the man to take us forward. Ten Hag is a younger, voracious coach who was more up to task of taking the United job - but has also probably benefitted from the likes of Ed Woodward being pushed out of football operations.
I think there's a world in which van Gaal is right to feel let down by United, but it's also clear he wasn't the man to take us forward. Ten Hag is a younger, voracious coach who was more up to task of taking the United job - but has also probably benefitted from the likes of Ed Woodward being pushed out of football operations.
His football was an absolute borefest, and his signings were abysmal, probably the worst of the Woodward era.
Gave us a laugh or two off the pitch, though - and gave us Marcus Rashford.
Gave us a laugh or two off the pitch, though - and gave us Marcus Rashford.
Dutch Dave Sexton. When football is melatonin.
Had some iconic moments but it was probably the worst football I have ever seen.
Fecking Smalling and Jones just passing it to each other for 45 minutes. I would rather get waterboarded.
The transfers were beyond horrific. The amount of money he wasted was honestly impressive. You would think after buying 10 players one would work but literally all were duds.
His obsession with us is also kinda weird. Rarely sacked managers are as salty as he is. Its been years and he never misses a chance to have a go at us.
Fecking Smalling and Jones just passing it to each other for 45 minutes. I would rather get waterboarded.
The transfers were beyond horrific. The amount of money he wasted was honestly impressive. You would think after buying 10 players one would work but literally all were duds.
His obsession with us is also kinda weird. Rarely sacked managers are as salty as he is. Its been years and he never misses a chance to have a go at us.