LVG: TERRIBLE REDS WERE LOW AND MEAN TO ME
LVG SNUBBED BELGIUM JOB TO KEEP REDS PAYING
LOUIS VAN GAAL branded Manchester United “mean and low”, and turned down the Belgium job, so the Reds had to keep paying up his contract.
Van Gaal, sacked by United after winning the FA Cup in 2016, was offered the Belgium job before former Everton boss Roberto Martinez was eventually handed it.
But Van Gaal, 66, revealed he turned down the chance to take them to the World Cup out of spite towards United, so they would have to continue paying up his contract, after terminating it a year early.
“It would have been really great if I had become Belgium national coach,” said Van Gaal. “But I was so resentful and vindictive that I let the job go by.
“It was stupid, really, because the sporting value should always come in the first place. That should have been the most important thing. But that’s how I looked at things.
“It was not about money. It was all about the act of revenge. I went for my instinct, not the rational. I just have to live with that.
“I’ve been a really successful manager, so I don’t want to slag the world of football down. I have had a lot of good times.’
“But the way Manchester United have treated me was terrible. They have been mean and low.’’
Van Gaal (with Sir Alex Ferguson and the FA Cup, below) accused United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward of not being straight with him and going behind his back to appoint Jose Mourinho.
“In contrast, the way president Nunez of Barcelona treated me (when Van Gaal left) was fantastic,” said the Dutchman. “That proves the world of football is not full of false people. There are also straight and warm people.”
LVG also claimed there was a deliberately orchestrated campaign to drive him out of Old Trafford, with former players lining up to denigrate his style of play.
“Former players started to have a go, saying that I was giving the fans boring football,” he said. “That struck me. It was directed, organised.
“After a while I started to think, ‘I’m losing my authority towards the players’. So I had to make concessions in my approach.
“That was tough, because I’ve always had my own way of coaching.’’
When he left United, Van Gaal announced his retirement, but says he could end that soon.
He said: “I can see myself doing that, yes. But I could not take any job, because of the conditions Manchester United had put into my contract over my fee.’’
Van Gaal says he normally doesn’t talk about football at home with his wife, Truus, but, at United, he just couldn’t avoid the subject.
“Truus was the one who saw it all develop in the wrong way at United,” he added. “She warned me six months before there was something going on – she could see it with the guys in charge of the club.
“For me, that was a catalyst to get angry, because I did not see it coming.”