My job interview with van Gaal was like going back to school

New pupil Giggs will have top education under this master tactician, says Wotte

RYAN GIGGS was not exactly short on credentials to be selected as Manchester United assistant manager. Almost a quarter of a century of devoted service, 963 appearances and 34 trophies won in an Old Trafford life spent chiefly working for Sir Alex Ferguson was quite a start.

A determined ambition to succeed in coaching was rather obvious last season, to the point he became interim manager for four games.

For all that decorated career and club-icon status, an hour or so playing the pupil with a tactics board in Louis van Gaal’s living room probably sealed the deal last week. And Giggs must have performed with all the intelligence and swagger associated with his finest moments in a red jersey in order to impress the 62-year-old at his Noordwijk home.

Van Gaal’s beachside apartment was the setting for an experience Mark Wotte fondly recalls as he welcomed the arrival of his former coaching mentor to British football.

The SFA’s performance director had sparred tactically with van Gaal before — in the Dutch Under-19 league — when the young coach Wotte, whose playing career was ended by injury at 28, scored a surprise title success over the Ajax man.

That didn’t matter greatly — and nor did Wotte’s three years as a top-flight boss at Utrecht — when the van Gaal spotlight was swivelled to glare on him for a back-to-school test in 2000. Van Gaal was assembling a staff after being named Holland national coach for the first time and asked Wotte to be his Under-21 man.

Wotte said: ‘I was delighted to be invited to take the job. But then I had to go to his house. He said: “Can I ask you some questions about how you think about football?”.

‘I said I’d been with Utrecht for two-and-a-half years and maybe he’d seen how we played.

‘He had this tactics board and asked about my style of play. He said: “Come and have a seat, let’s talk tactics”. He wanted to know whether I would recognise his philosophy.

‘For me, it was like going to school. He said: “You are the manager of Barcelona, what would you do to play Valencia?”.

‘They had one really pacey striker Claudio Lopez and Louis’ Barcelona team always lost against them. They played 4-5-1, sat very deep and had that quick striker. Absolute speed can be so difficult to defend.

‘After an hour of really good conversation, he said I was OK and had the job. Maybe that’s what Ryan Giggs went through. I had been a first-team manager for five years with different clubs between the age of 35 and 40. Then I just learned so much from Louis because he was on another level.’

As Wotte’s youngsters typically played the night before the senior national team, he was handed an extra role. With van Gaal in the dugout, Wotte sat in the stand with the task of phoning down observations to assistant Frans Hoek.

‘There were no iPads, no sophisticated systems of match analysis in those days,’ explained Wotte. ‘But Louis wants to exclude coincidence, to be sure about everything. I gave him the view from up top.

‘Every 15 minutes, I had to say what I saw. So when Louis walked into the dressing room at half-time, he knew if it was offside or not, who made the mistake, who didn’t. He’s a perfectionist, which makes him sometimes not easy to work with.

‘He’s a strong and difficult character. There is no

He’s a strong and difficult character. There is no compromise for Louis. He does it his way. He believes in his way

compromise for Louis. He does it his way. He believes in his way.

‘He won the leagues in Holland, Spain, Germany doing this. He asked for a full report from every Under-21 game. Sometimes he asked every detail. ‘In his office, there was a cupboard with books of his notes from all Ajax and Barcelona seasons. He said: “Whenever you’re bored, feel free to pick one”.

‘There is always a key to victory in every game. He educated me in those two years unbelievably well. He was an inspiration to me.’ That stint with the KNVB was a rare failure on the pitch as Holland missed out on qualification for Japan and South Korea in 2002.

Away from the World Cup demands, van Gaal was also technical director and, together with Andries Jonker and others, wrote the masterplan for Dutch football for the next 10 years. The profits of that piece of work could be seen in South Africa when the Dutch reached the World Cup Final with a team featuring a host of Wotte’s former Under-21s.

David Moyes discovered nine months into his six-year contract that it’s ‘win now’ at Old Trafford, so the very least van Gaal will be expected to do is reinstall United to the top four. Stories of a £200million transfer kitty can only send expectations rocketing for his first season in England.

However, he has pleaded for time to make the team play the way he envisaged at previous clubs. At Bayern Munich, he almost lost his job in November of the first season before winning a double and reaching the 2010 Champions League Final against Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.

‘Van Gaal is process-driven, it’s not going to be a quick fix,’ explained Wotte. ‘He’s never been a short-term appointment. In the first few months, he will definitely look at Man United’s Under-18s, Under-20s, the development squad.

‘If he likes what he sees, he’s not

afraid to put them in. At Bayern, they weren’t sure about Thomas Muller. Louis saw special skills and put him in. (Holger) Badstuber the same. He has an unbelievable eye for young talent.

‘Seven homegrown boys including Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and the de Boers, Ronald and Frank, all came through the Under-19s to the first team at Ajax and won a Champions League.

‘At Barcelona, OK, you’d have to be blind not to notice Xavi, but he didn’t buy an experienced player for his position or for Carles Puyol because he knew what was coming from the academy.’

IN the days following the Moyes sacking, stories leaked out of United’s Carrington training base about players being unimpressed with coaching tips and methods during the short reign of Ferguson’s successor. Wotte would consider it a great surprise if there were similar complaints once van Gaal stamps his authority on the day-to-day activities.

‘Giggs will benefit unbelievably from working with van Gaal on the tactics, preparation and content of the sessions,’ he stated. ‘Van Gaal is the master of the training ground.

‘He won’t be the English manager walking around the park looking at sessions. He’ll be hands on, making sure everyone understands exactly what he means. He’ll go into great detail, won’t use general statements.

‘He’s very precise and specific, sometimes really drilling in the philosophy. United players will have to be prepared for really serious training sessions.

‘That has impressed a lot of top players who’ve worked with him.’

Another criticism of United’s operations post-Ferguson was the failure to secure top targets like Cesc Fabregas as Ed Woodward, who replaced David Gill as chief executive, admitted to naivety in that department.

With huge spending capability this close season, they had better not stutter in a squad revamp demanded by van Gaal. He has already eyed former charges at Munich such as Muller and Arjen Robben, plus Mats Hummels of Borussia Dortmund as one key step to atoning for the departures of centre-half pairing Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

‘Louis never wants to get involved in the business side, deal with agents or transfer negotiations,’ revealed Wotte. ‘That’s different to English managers, who all talk to agents. He’s really strict on that. He will advise on value and he’s strict on not overpaying players, but it’s really up to the club to get the players for him.

‘It’s going to be interesting to see if they can deliver. He’s very specific in the type he wants. He’ll never sign just power and strength. He wants intelligent players who can understand the way he thinks as well as being strong and athletic.’

If their vying with the likes of Chelsea throughout the summer months for signing targets is going to be interesting, then Wotte is salivating at the potential clashes on the pitch. The most intriguing? The rivalry ahead between van Gaal and his former Nou Camp employee Mourinho, of course.

‘It’s a fascinating battle,’ said Wotte. ‘Mourinho, deep down, knows he has learned unbelievably from van Gaal when he was assistant. He has, of course, developed himself into a totally different coach and I think van Gaal respects that. But he doesn’t always approve of his style of play.

‘Mourinho is a reactive coach, van Gaal is creative. He wants to have the ball and be dominant. Mourinho is world class in setting his team up with a plan to exploit the weakness in the opponent. Van Gaal is all about ball possession and winning it back.

‘Another difference is he’s very honest. There’s no hidden message to the opposition. Sometimes people think he should be a little bit more modest but that’s the personality he was successful with. Some love him, some hate him. I can only have huge respect for him.’