Louis Van Gaal
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Former Manchester United manager, Louis Van Gaal, has recently spoken out about a key problem he faced at Manchester United and proclaims that the problem is yet to be solved.
Issues at United
Since the Glazer family arrived at Manchester United, the club have been dealing with multiple financial issues that will take years to fix.
During Sir Alex Ferguson’s later years at Manchester United, it was unclear just how much on pitch damage those financial issues would cause United.
With Sir Alex being unbelievably successful, his team continued to perform in both domestic and European competition, causing a distraction for how the club was being run in the directors box.
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Since Sir Alex’s retirement in 2013, Manchester United have failed to come close to winning another Premier League title.
The closest the club came to winning a 21st title was under Jose Mourinho in the 2017/18 season, where they finished 2nd. However, Manchester United still found themselves 19 points behind champions Manchester City.
The recent lack of success on the pitch has put the clubs financial struggles in the limelight, as fans are looking at reasons to why their club is performing so poorly on the pitch.
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Louis Van Gaal: “[United are] a commercial club, not a football club”
In a recent interview with Sky Sports, former Manchester United manager, Louis Van Gaal, has spoken on how Manchester United is run from a manager’s perspective.
Van Gaal states that Manchester United are “a commercial club, not a football club.”
The legendary Dutch manager, explains how difficult it is when the manager does not have full autonomy over who they are allowed to sign, Van Gaal says “it is very difficult”.
Van Gaal proceeds to speak about his preference of the ‘old style’ when manager’s were able to sign whoever they wanted, regardless of the profile a player may have, bringing commercial value to the club.
The former United manager explains his beliefs around manager sackings – to summarise his interview – he does not agree with how directors can sack their managers even if the managers are not the ones bringing the players to the club.
Louis Van Gaal was sacked as Manchester United manager following an FA Cup final victory against Crystal Palace, in 2016. Van Gaal’s more notable signings included hot prospect Antony Martial and Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria. Two signings which did not work out for Manchester United.
Despite Louis Van Gaal’s claims, it was clear to football fans that manager Erik Ten Hag was given a say in United’s transfer business. The new Bayer Leverkusen man signed four players he worked with previously at Ajax showing Louis Van Gaal’s statement may be relating to his time as United boss and that United may have changed their style of business.