WHY SAY ANYTHING?

The transfer window has been open for two whole days and Manchester United still haven’t bought a striker! Is it not obvious to van Gaal that goals win games and decent strikers score goals?

So to the home game against Swansea where Laborious Louis had the chance to improve upon the Chelsea performance by winning.

Yet again United’s team selection was a sign of things to come.

Inexplicably, Wayne Rooney had been named as the man-of-the-match in the previous game against Chelsea. He hadn’t scored, as usual, so I guess he got it because he managed to raise his game from rubbish to average.

Van Gaal must have been sufficiently impressed because he decided his misfiring captain should remain at centre forward despite lacking the obvious requirement of goals.

As is the norm nowadays, van Gaal put his top scorer on the wing thereby limiting any chances he would have of increasing his tally. He played Ashley Young as a wing back, again. He played Daley Blind as a wing back, again. I get the impression that, if he got the chance to manage Barcelona again, he would play Messi, Neymar and Suarez as the back three.

It is all this tinkering that is preventing van Gaal from getting results and it will eventually cost him his job, probably as soon as Woodward realises that a change is required.

After only fifteen minutes of the latest game against Swansea, the crowd were singing the name of Jose Mourinho. It must have been the United fans because it was out of tune and the Welsh, if nothing else, can sing.

Just after half-time United did manage to score as the Old Trafford faithful looked on in disbelief.

Anthony Martial, realising that Rooney was no centre forward, stepped into the middle for one cross and headed a fine goal, as if to say, “that’s the way to do it!” playing Mr. Punch to Rooney’s Judy, (or should that be the other way round?).

After Swansea had equalised Rooney accepted Martial’s challenge and scored with an excellent finish from a pass by guess who? Yes, Martial!

Eventually, after a nervous ten minutes or so at the end United came out winners for a change.

Once again, the cracks had been papered over. Swansea had shown no ambition whatsoever until they went a goal down and, virtually as soon as they did, they equalised. The same could be said of Chelsea in the previous game, although they didn’t have to equalise, they just showed no ambition.

The longer van Gaal remains in charge of this team the more damage is being done. The club which was inching forwards at the beginning of his tenure is now going backwards by the yard.

Jose Mourinho is available, willing and able, as far as we know. It appears, therefore, that he is unlikely to be the next United manager, otherwise, why is van Gaal still there? Mourinho is turning jobs down at the moment so he either knows something we don’t or he is having the break he said he didn’t need.

According to that bible of truth and decency called the Sun, the United players seem pretty convinced that the next manager either should be, or will be, Diego Simeone.

The only arguments I can find against this are that he has expressed no desire whatsoever to leave Atletico Madrid and he doesn’t speak a word of English, other than that there is no reason he should not pitch up at Old Trafford in the near future.

It does raise quite an interesting proposition for next season if it were to happen though. Imagine Simeone at Old Trafford and Guardiola at the Etihad. It certainly wouldn’t be as quiet and boring as it currently is.