Louis Van Gaal

[Barney Rubble]

Surprised nobody's started a topic on this yet.

1990 - Alex Ferguson got bailed out by Lee Martin.

2016 - Louis Van Gaal had no chance of ever being bailed out by Jesse Lindgard.

The football industry has changed so much since I was a lad, and not necessarily for the better.

Anyway, Louis Van Gaal deserves much credit for conducting himself throughout with the utmost dignity and humility.

[Cove_Sheep]

1 minute ago, Barney Rubble said:

 

Anyway, Louis Van Gaal deserves much credit for conducting himself throughout with the utmost dignity and humility.

Eh?

[fringo]

 

 

 

[Jaggy Jim]

He deserves credit for his classy statement tonight, but he's been nothing but rude in a huge number of press conferences this season. Not once has he admitted mistakes, instead making all sorts of ridiculous excuses.

[jock strap]

He seems like a decent manager but didn't perform to the 'expectancy' at Man Utd. 

There are the positives about the youth brought through but some of the signings have been way short off the mark. Maybe Jose will shake them up.

I wish LVG well for the future but think he will retire now.

 

[Jaggy Jim]

14 minutes ago, jock strap said:

 I wish LVG well for the future but think he will retire now.

 

He's off to his home in the sun in Portugal. I don't see him working again. He was innovative in his day but it's been obvious in the last 2 years that the game had left him behind. His only legacy at Man U will be Martial and Rashford, and he got lucky with the latter. He would never have played but for injuries. He'd only just broken into the u21 team and made a couple of appearances after spending the entire season playing for the u18s.

[Stewart_Aberdeen]

His finest moment.

[Guest allyc]

Feel sorry for him tbh.he clearly was or is one of the best managers around.you need a lot of luck sometimes with the type of players you inherited and the way they perform.perhaps man u won't ein the title again for 20 years.it's just the way it goes.

[aaid]

I think its pretty hilarious that Man Utd fans have been castigating Mourinho since his Porto team put them out of the Champions League 12 years ago and now he's the bleeding messiah.

At least Chelsea fans were consistent when it came to Benitiz. 

[hunchy]

I do wonder what man u would have been like next season if off was still there. I get the feeling that the team would have been more settled with each other plus the addition of a couple of new signings and I think they might have been up there again.

Don't know how much truth is in it but I did hear that de gea would not play another season under him so if he stayed de gea was gone

 

[Parklife]

9 hours ago, Jaggy Jim said:

His only legacy at Man U will be Martial and Rashford, and he got lucky with the latter. He would never have played but for injuries. He'd only just broken into the u21 team and made a couple of appearances after spending the entire season playing for the u18s.

I'm sorry but i completely disagree. You only have to look at Van Gaal's legacy of bringing through youth players throughout his whole career to see that this unlikely to have been anything to do with "luck". 

How many other young players has he gave debuts to or given a run in the team? Lingaard got his debut, as did Rashford, as did Fosu-Mensah. These 3 are established first team squad members now. Then there's guys like Borthwick-Jackson and Donald Love, who might not have played much but have both made their breakthrough under Van Gaal. 

I think you're being massively unfair to Van Gaal by attributing youth players getting a chance as lucky. 

15 minutes ago, hunchy said:

I do wonder what man u would have been like next season if off was still there. I get the feeling that the team would have been more settled with each other plus the addition of a couple of new signings and I think they might have been up there again.

Don't know how much truth is in it but I did hear that de gea would not play another season under him so if he stayed de gea was gone

 

I suspect De Gea will be gone anyway.

[Jaggy Jim]

13 hours ago, Parklife said:

I'm sorry but i completely disagree. You only have to look at Van Gaal's legacy of bringing through youth players throughout his whole career to see that this unlikely to have been anything to do with "luck". 

How many other young players has he gave debuts to or given a run in the team? Lingaard got his debut, as did Rashford, as did Fosu-Mensah. These 3 are established first team squad members now. Then there's guys like Borthwick-Jackson and Donald Love, who might not have played much but have both made their breakthrough under Van Gaal. 

I think you're being massively unfair to Van Gaal by attributing youth players getting a chance as lucky. 

I suspect De Gea will be gone anyway.

I'm not doubting his record with giving youngsters a chance. He gutted the Man U squad of experienced players so he was always going to have to rely on youngsters if injuries hit. I'm just saying he got lucky with Rashford. At the start of January he was behind Rooney, Martial, Keane and Wilson in the striking pecking order. He only got a chance because the first 3 got injured at the same time and Wilson was sent out on loan. Van Gaal was forced into playing him. He wouldn't have selected him had any of the other 4 been available.

Fosu-Mensah looks a real prospect. I'd be surprised if any of the others he's blooded become anything more than squad players at best. Lingard might have a shot but he needs to strengthen up and become more consistent. Borthwick-Jackson has done well but once Shaw is fit he'll struggle for a game.

[fringo]

Was it £250m LVG spent on his team ?

[Cove_Sheep]

2 minutes ago, fringo said:

Was it £250m LVG spent on his team ?

Think they said £270m or so on SSN last night.

[Fairbairn]

10 hours ago, Jaggy Jim said:

 

Fosu-Mensah looks a real prospect. I'd be surprised if any of the others he's blooded become anything more than squad players at best. Lingard might have a shot but he needs to strengthen up and become more consistent. Borthwick-Jackson has done well but once Shaw is fit he'll struggle for a game.

That'll be him a first team regular for years then!  Luke Shaw makes David Templeton look like the Bionic Man!!!

[Lion Rampant]

10 hours ago, Jaggy Jim said:

I'm not doubting his record with giving youngsters a chance. He gutted the Man U squad of experienced players so he was always going to have to rely on youngsters if injuries hit. I'm just saying he got lucky with Rashford. At the start of January he was behind Rooney, Martial, Keane and Wilson in the striking pecking order. He only got a chance because the first 3 got injured at the same time and Wilson was sent out on loan. Van Gaal was forced into playing him. He wouldn't have selected him had any of the other 4 been available.

Fosu-Mensah looks a real prospect. I'd be surprised if any of the others he's blooded become anything more than squad players at best. Lingard might have a shot but he needs to strengthen up and become more consistent. Borthwick-Jackson has done well but once Shaw is fit he'll struggle for a game.

He's getting a lot of praise for playing youngsters, but in a lot of cases he was left with little choice because of injuries and when the injuries cleared up then the younger players were mostly dropped with Rashford being the exception.

For example, CBJ played when Rojo was missing but as soon as he returned CBJ disappeared from the team and even the entire squad. CBJ came back and played v Bournemouth with Rojo being dropped and played very well but was still dropped for the final. Fosu Mensah looked to be playing well but I don't think has featured since the semi final v Everton.

I doubt Rashford would have featured had Martial not been injured in the warm up prior to the FC Midtjylland game. In fairness though he kept playing him from that point on when he could have easily dropped him when Rooney came back.

 

 

9 hours ago, fringo said:

Was it £250m LVG spent on his team ?

He spent upwards of £250m but £60m of that was on Di Maria who was sold on. Although I understand he sanctioned the deals, Shaw and Herrera were signed before he joined and I think they were roughly £30m each

[thplinth]

During his time as manager of Man Utd I thought he was very poor indeed. Thought his appointment was lazy, a safe pair of hands appointment post Moyes. Nothing against him personally but he just did not seem to have any vision of how they should be playing. They should have give Mourinho the job straight away even if it was only for 3 years of nonsense as he was the only one capable of succeeding Ferguson with success. And he would have done which is probably why he was vetoed.