I’LL NEVER QUIT
LVG intends to see out three years at United
LOUIS VAN GAAL wants to stay as Manchester United manager until the end of his three-year contract and insists he has never offered to quit.
Van Gaal’s future at Old Trafford has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent weeks and the Dutchman will come under renewed pressure if United go out of the FA Cup at Derby County tonight. But a defiant Van Gaal claimed yesterday that he has always intended to see out his contract, which runs until the summer of 2017, and will continue to fight for his job.
‘Everybody knows I have signed a three-year contract,’ said Van Gaal. ‘It’s a process, not one game, and I want to continue until the end. If I wasn’t willing to do that, I don’t think I would have started here. I am always fighting.’
Asked if he had tried to quit, Van Gaal said: ‘I have not mentioned that, ever.’
The Old Trafford boss welcomed the backing of United chief Ed Woodward and the Glazer
From Back Page family but, curiously, said that their support has put more pressure on him to deliver. ‘Of course I’m very happy with the support of Ed Woodward and the Glazers,’ he said. ‘But when the board has such confidence in you, the pressure is higher than when they say it is your last game. Then your confidence is not so high and you can fight against it. And when you fight you have a bigger motivation than when they support you. ‘It’s the same thing that I have more pressure because the fans believe in me — or maybe had believed in me. The pressure is greater because you have to fulfil their expectations of you.’ Van Gaal, who described media speculation about his future as ‘awful and horrible’, knows he has to win back the United fans who hounded him after Saturday’s 1-0 home loss to Southampton. The 64-year-old accepts that he is relying on their faith rather than hard facts to believe he can turn things around as United sit on their lowest points total, 37, at this stage of a Premier League season. He said. ‘I am more dependable on belief than facts. The fact now is that we are not in the top four in the league, the gap is bigger and the belief is not so easy.’ The FA Cup could represent United’s best hope of a trophy this season but Van Gaal knows that defeat at Championship club Derby tonight would plunge him into another crisis. United will be without up to eight senior players for the game, including Matteo Darmian, whose rib injury is not as serious as first feared, but Michael Carrick could return after four games out with a knee injury. Van Gaal believes he could not have foreseen the injury problems. He said: ‘When you see the circumstances — we have eight injuries — you cannot say that is the manager’s fault because there are five or six contact injuries. When I can prevent that then maybe I am guilty and I have to step down. But I don’t have that feeling. ‘We were top of the league one-and-a-half months ago, but the injuries are now and that is also a problem.’ He added: ‘It’s not good that I’m always defending myself. I don’t want to, I want to analyse what is happening with Manchester United.’