Manchester United simply have to react to the news that Manchester City have signed Pep Guardiola as head coach for the next three years starting in the 2016/17 season.
To muddle through with van Gaal, another old man who is, currently, nowhere near as successful as his equally geriatric counterpart at the Etihad is suicidal nonsense.
City are grabbing the bull by the horns! Manuel Pellegrini could end this season with four trophies. Remembering what happened with Jupp Heynckes at Bayern Munich, he will surely win at least three! It is very unlikely, but it is possible.
Van Gaal will be very lucky if he wins one.
City are replacing an already successful manager with another, younger one. United aren’t even considering replacing their boring, unsuccessful manager yet.
United fans are already fed up with the boring football. They move like waves between cheering a United win, then booing the next insipid performance. After years of success it is hardly surprising that the Old Trafford faithful have turned on van Gaal. They turned on Moyes as well but both were given a fair crack of the whip even if they would both deny it if asked.
A good FA Cup win at Derby was cheered and rightly so. The team played well and deserved their win. Much as van Gaal would like to think that the fans were behind him that night, they weren’t! They were behind the team. He was tolerated, nothing more, nothing less.
Once again, Manchester United are in danger of being left behind by Manchester City.
United went for a supposedly “safe pair of hands” when employing van Gaal. City have contracted the best. This is now backfiring spectacularly and Woodward doesn’t know what to do!
Well Ed, Jose Mourinho is available and looking for a job in Manchester. Diego Simeone could probably be talked into renewing hostilities with Guardiola, even Laurent Blanc, an ex-United player, would consider the job.
The youth set-up at Old Trafford needs overhauling, City have the best in the country.
The Etihad has been expanded to increase the capacity. City are going places! So are United but, the problem is, that they are going in opposite directions.
Players wanting a move to the Premier League will see City as a more attractive proposition to United. Many players won’t go to United while van Gaal is there. I am not aware of any player who has said the same about City under Pellegrini, there will be even more takers under Guardiola.
So while Ed Woodward sits with his head in the sand, worrying about what effect the sacking of Louis van Gaal would have on his reputation, Manchester City put the wheels in motion for even more success.
United’s American owners are only concerned about one thing: Money! That is why, to their strange way of thinking, putting a “money man” in charge of transfers makes sense, irrespective of whether or not he can do the job.
City’s Middle Eastern owners are also interested in money but have a much better grasp on how to make it than their American counterparts. They put people who know football in charge of transfers. Consequently, they rarely overpay and they rarely miss out on a player. Woodward has frequently done both.
It is this totally contrasting way of thinking that epitomises the differences between City and United. If United don’t drag themselves, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century then City will not be the only club leaving them behind.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 