WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Recently I have been reading that the last three results have turned Louis van Gaal into such a good manager that Manchester United couldn’t bear to see him leave at the end of the season and would like him to stay on for his contracted final year.

The last three results have been the Europa League win over FC Midtjylland, who would just about survive the first division in England, followed by a good 3-2 win over Arsenal, who were abysmal and ending in a very fortuitous 1-0 win over Watford, a game in which they were lucky Watford didn’t score three.

With the exception of the Arsenal game, the other two again papered over the cracks and certainly made van Gaal look a lot better than he really is. The problem when this happens is that some people actually believe he is good, only for a short while, but long enough for the damage to be done.

Louis van Gaal has, basically, had his day. He cannot live with the modern game, particularly in the Premier League where he has never managed before. He is far too arrogant to admit it and prefers to rely completely on excuses when his team loses.

Today, for the West Brom match, it was Juan Mata for being sent off and the referee.
He completely ignored that, when he has a decent choice of players available, he hasn’t a clue which are the best. His good results all came when there was a large injury list and he picked the fit players, without having any options.

As soon as he gets players fit, he doesn’t know what to do. He picked the wrong team against West Brom then further compounded his error by making ridiculous substitutions when chasing the game.

Hopefully, this has silenced the idiots who want him to remain for another year. If they get their way, The job will be handed to Ryan Giggs in just over a year’s time. Much as Giggs is a legend, he is so in the same way as Sir Bobby Charlton and, also in the same way, there is absolutely no guarantee that he will be a good manager, Charlton certainly wasn’t.

This would all mean side-stepping the greatest manager still available. Jose Mourinho would, by then, have taken another job and, if Giggs were to fail, probably wouldn’t be available a third time.

I fail to see much difference between Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho and can’t, therefore, understand quite what the problem is. This idea that he doesn’t bring kids through doesn’t ring true either. He brought a couple through during his time at Chelsea, but his remit was to win things on a three year contract, not become a nursery nurse. I feel pretty certain that, if he were given a reasonably long contract and told that he must develop the youth of the club, then he would gladly do it.

Ferguson, with the class of 92 the obvious exception, wasn’t particularly well known for bringing kids through either. Schmeichel, Barthez, Rooney, Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy, Keane, McClair, Kanchelskis, Ince, Irwin, Parker, Bruce, Pallister, Cantona, Yorke, Cole, Sheringham, Solskjaer, van der Sar, Stam, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Heinze. None of these players came through the youth team at Old Trafford and they are the first ones I could think of without bothering to do any research, there will be considerably more.

The other advantage in appointing Mourinho ASAP is the counter effect it would have on Manchester City’s appointment of Pep Guardiola. It would give the United fans something to shout about, for a change.

It is absolutely staggering that there is even a whisper that van Gaal will still be there next season and I, for one, hope that it was just a momentary lapse in concentration and judgement by some misguided fool who has the ear of the press.

Next year needs to see Louis van Gaal in Portugal, in retirement and far, far away from Old Trafford. He is doing enough damage as it is without the need for a further year to inflict even more.