WHEN it comes to Louis van Gaal, it seems there’s plenty of double Dutch being spoken.
Yes, he has claimed honours galore, including winning the Champions League with Ajax back in 1995.
But there is a sense that the 64-year-old is a man out of time right now.
Of course, how he handles us in the media is no indication of how he interacts with his players.
But Van Gaal, in front of the press, comes across often as aggressive, arrogant, confusing, confrontational and, at times, downright strange.
It’s hard to imagine Van Gaal – whose haircuts are looking weirder and weirder of late – not puzzling his players too, or causing them concern with his unfathomable attitude.
C e r t a i n l y, watching United performances, there seems to be little cohesion and even less joy about the way the team has been playing.
Superstar Wayne Rooney looks like a player with the weight of the world, never mind the red half of Manchester, on his shoulders.
Despite United not playing for a fortnight, it has not been a good week for Van Gaal.
Reports have emerged of captain Rooney and vice-captain Michael Carrick confronting the United manager to complain that his training and tactics were boring and that the players felt like they were being turned into “robots”.
Then he only goes and says the potential £58m they will have to pay for Monaco striker Anthony Martial is “ridiculous” and that he bought him for the next manager of the club.
“Ridiculous” is probably a
Arsene Wenger: The Inside Story of Arsenal Under Wenger (Simon & Schuster) – brought back some vivid memories for me. For I was the selected football reporter from the assembled journalists who went near word that comes into David Moyes’ mind in Spain as the Real Sociedad manager surveys the £181.9m extra his successor has been allowed to spend.
Despite that, LVG’s record stands only marginally better than Moyes’ – 27 wins, 12 draws and 11 defeats from 50 compared to 27 wins, nine draws and 15 losses from 51 for the Scot.
Another poor display at home to Liverpool tomorrow and you have to wonder whether the United hierarchy will decide the dressing room to speak to Mourinho after a match at Stamford Bridge in October 2005.
I asked Mourinho what he thought about Wenger’s suggestion that champions Chelsea were suffering a dip in form. It led him to launch into his infamous allegation that Wenger was, “Someone who likes to watch other people – a voyeur”.
Cross revisits that incident and many, many others, giving a real insight into Wenger.
that it is time for ‘King Louis’ to be deposed.
Certainly Sir Bobby Charlton and other influential figures at the club can’t have been impressed to see the team resorting – and not for the first time – to lumping long balls up to Marouane Fellaini at Swansea last time out, as they tried and failed to avoid defeat.
Van Gaal predicted this week Ryan Giggs would be his successor.
This column has a feeling that could happen a whole lot sooner than he thinks.