According to LVG, United will win the league this season, if he promises the league the following year... Can United win the league this season? I'd say third this year, and then problems at the club, he has a history of being a one season wonder
He probably will win it while hes here. Its what he does. Will it end in tears? Well were not like other clubs. Van gaals like fergie in that hes the boss of everything football related. So its probably going to be ok. I suspect lvg wants to choose when he retires. A few successful years, an lvg legacy and then what. How have bayern and barcelona done?
Fair play for saying third, although I'd be happy with a top 4 finish. Don't think we'll win the league, or the FA Cup either. The club just needs to undo the mess from last year. Regarding Van Gaal, he leaves clubs in a lot better state than he finds them.
Londons only is a poor wum when it comes to united. He has too much respect for us and i bet hes secretly a fan of us on the side (your secrets safe ).
I'm pretty sure any idiot could spend 150 million pounds and at least make a little improvement... Surely...
Depends if you're talking about short term or long term. My point was in response to the OP. Van Gaal certainly left Barca and Bayern with a good foundation and football philosophy to build long term. However if it's short term success then you end up with the galacticos of Real Madrid 12 years ago who, after the initial success of a CL trophy, had little or no success for quite some time afterwards. Lots of managers, many of who were classed as better than idiots, couldn't manage any improvement for quite a few years.
Surely at Barca, it was Cruyff's foundation, building La Masia. After and during the Van Gaal era 97-00 and 02/03, Barca went six years without winning La Liga and had their worst league placings in decades. After he left in 2000, Barca came fourth, fourth again, he returned in 2002, left them in 12th and they came sixth: their worst three seasons in their history, befoer Rikjaard ripped up his squad and started again at big expense. And how LVG only got third in 2010/11 with such a talented Bayern squad is beyond me. 65 points, losing seven games. I know he promoted many youth players at Bayern, so maybe he can take some credit for their current greatness
Your comment about Cruyff is like saying Fergie laid the foundations at United. Ofcourse Cruyff has a special place in Barca's history, but I'm not talking about who set the tone of the club. I'm focusing on what Van Gaal can lay as the basis (foundation for want of a better word) while he is here, for long term success. I also think you're being a bit selective with your history there. He won the league twice with Barcelona and before his arrival they hadn't won it in 3 years. What I mean by his foundation, isn't about the training ground and facilities (much like ours which are already there also), it was how he during his tenure, set the way their football was coached and developed within the club that he is credited with. Players like Xavi but later Iniesta, Fabregas, Pique, Messi were the first to benefit from that, and later Busquets, and Pedro when he arrived as a teenager. But here's the point, Guardiola himself in the 90's was heavily influenced by Van Gaal (first at Ajax and later at Barcelona) while he was a player and then later while cutting his teeth as coach of the Barcelona B team. And despite players like Messi and Iniesta featuring heavily in Rijkaard's Barcelona success, there is a distinct difference between Rijkaard's Barcelona style of football and Guardiola's, and that was influenced by Van Gaal - and Pep himself has referred to that. As I said above, it's the long term foundations I'm thinking of, not simply the short term success of the next couple of years. If he leaves a successful footballing infrastructure for the next guy to continue at United and that affects the way we're playing 5+ years from now then I'll be happy.
So you are hoping that Van Gaal influences a player now that maybe comes back to coach United a decade later, who is as successful as Guardiola and becomes United's verison of Guardiola around 2024. Have they run out of straws at Lidl in Dublin?
Louis Van Moyes making a mug of himself again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d4UDDXhZuY&feature=youtu.be
