Wanted to rejuvenate Manchester United but it didn’t happen, confesses Louis van Gaal

Manchester United have struggled since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and left the club with them appointing three managers in a seven-year spell. Both Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal were afforded only two years while David Moyes was handed less than a year at the helm. However, things are changing with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer slowly but steadily changing the team and getting rid of the deadwood.

However, during the transition period between David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, the Dutchman admitted that the team he had inherited was an ageing squad which needed new additions to help change that. Van Gaal confirmed that he was looking to rejuvenate the squad in order to help them keep winning. But while that was promised to him by the “Glazers and Ed Woodward”, it never happened with the club only signing his “third-, fourth- or fifth-choice players.” 

“I met with them in Brussels – clubs often organise talks in foreign cities so the media can’t track them down easily. The Glazers and Ed Woodward were there – they asked me about everything, including my vision and how I would want to organise things, and said they would meet my needs for new players. I inherited an old team that hadn’t been refreshed for some time, and wanted to rejuvenate the squad with players who would bring the same kind of quality,” Van Gaal told FourFourTwo.

“But to get the ones I wanted proved very difficult. It surprised me, even though I understand that clubs hold out for the highest fee because they know United are the richest in the world. At the same time, though, if you are the richest, you’d expect to get what you want. But it didn’t happen: we only got third-, fourth- or fifth-choice players.”