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is Louis van gaal a knob

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knob?

  • yes

    Votes: 169 88.5%
  • no

    Votes: 22 11.5%

  • Total voters
    191
It's just the way he sits on the bench scribbling away taking notes when the team is falling to pieces a few feet away.
Then you have Giggs with a long face next to him. It's like they have learnt to communicate telepathically or at least through a set of facial expressions.
How uninspiring. Does Van Gaal read off all those points admonishing players for their errors at HT?
It was like when a mistake happened, he'd jot it down.
Rectify it whilst it's happening surely?

The problem is they have no commanding central defenders really: Jones, Smalling, Rojo, McNair and Evans.
Then you have Blind, Shaw, Darmian & Borthwick Jackson and then you're into Varela Poole, Love and Tuanzebe as the other defenders.
Then they have 14 players, none really a 'striker' but all DM or Ams vying for 6 places.
 
I think Gigs has also shown his true colours. He just sits and hides behind LVG if Giggs was such a ManU man and such a leader as Al make him out to be he would get off his arse get to the touchline and rev that team. Instead he sits and watches it all go tits up. You dont have to have the job first in order to do the job. You can often make a job yours by taking it by the scruff of the neck and getting shit done. But fuck em, I'm loving it. Every post match day at work is a pleasure with all the ManU fans sitting talking kak to each other.
 
I find the way he tries to explain things baffling . Words seem to come out of his mouth yet they have nothing to do with each other.
 
I actually feel some sympathy for the guy. Look at the injury problems his squad has.
As funny as it is, there is clearly a media agenda against him, sky and the Murdoch press clearly want him out, so Jose can pick up the reins and sky can have a marketing reach around next season with all their favourite managers in the north west
 
I actually feel some sympathy for the guy. Look at the injury problems his squad has.
As funny as it is, there is clearly a media agenda against him, sky and the Murdoch press clearly want him out, so Jose can pick up the reins and sky can have a marketing reach around next season with all their favourite managers in the north west
100% agree with this, also weren't they saying only a couple of weeks how great they were having beat the Dane's 5-1 and Woolwich 3-2 with their kids. They are as fickle as fans, but when you are paid to give an opinion there has to be some professional responsibility. Say what you want as a fan if you are not being paid.
 
This poll shows just how easy people are manipulated by the media.
Fuck off I don't need the media to tell me his a knob. Just my own eyes. 1/4 billion on players toolish antics in his press conferences. The clipboard I mean what is he a football manager or lecy meter inspector.

People think overwhelming that he is a knob because of his actions and team management.

He's done well in the past but he has royally fucked this job up. And no hipster counter intuitive narrative can tell me otherwise. To be fair turning man United to one of the most drab sides in England takes some sort of genius but absolving him of knob status it does not.
 
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A story from a Spurs fan who met Van-Gaal
Mails: Liverpool will challenge next season - Football365

Following the game yesterday and LVG’s post-match comments, I thought it would be worth writing in to the mailbox about an encounter I had with the United manager on holiday last summer in Vilamoura, Portugal. My wife and I were out for dinner when we saw him and his family entering the restaurant we were in (whilst we were sat at the back by the toilets, he and his family were placed front and centre in the middle obviously). I’m a Spurs fan but I thought that I would never get the chance again to meet someone with such history in the game, Ajax, Barca, Holland and United to name but a few. So, once we had finished, and by this time the restaurant had virtually cleared out, with a bit of Dutch courage (i.e a fair few beers and wines), I decided to interrupt the Van Gaal family dinner and ask for a photo. Having heard of his reputation as a tough task master, and seeing his interactions over the years with the press, I was a bit nervous at his reaction, but before I could even finish my question of whether I could have a photo, he stopped me and asked me who I supported, specifically, are you United or City? I said neither, I was a Spurs fan. Straight away he smiled and said that is OK then. His son immediately stood up and said that he would take the picture and commented that they were big fans of Spurs and “Mr. Levy”.

He asked me to sit next to him and once the photo had been taken, asked me my thoughts on Spurs. I said that last season was OK, but felt that this season we would again be pushing for 4th, but would probably finish 5th or 6th (how wrong was I). He immediately stopped me and said that we had a great “selection” (not sure why, but he always used that word instead of team/squad) and said that we would win the league in the next few years if we stayed together. Obviously I thought he was being polite as no one could have foreseen what has since happened, and just replied that I thought he would have more chance with his team as he would be able to spend some serious money in the summer. He was actually then quite dismissive as he said that he couldn’t win the league with this selection, they weren’t good enough. I said that he would be buying a few players soon to add to that squad and he laughed and said possibly…..it was very shortly after this that Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlein joined. I just said please don’t take Lloris away from us as at the time it looked certain that De Gea would be going to Madrid…again he just laughed.

I thought I would push my luck a bit and mentioned to him that everyone thought that he was going to be signing for us before United came in for him. He said that the deal was all agreed with “Mr. Levy”, and he was very impressed with him and Spurs as a whole, but then United came in and he simply couldn’t turn them down. But he said that he would love to work with Mr Levy one day and his whole family were very fond of Spurs.

At this point I realised I had outstayed my welcome and his wife, daughter in law and grandchild were sick of me sitting there so I thanked him for being so nice and said good luck for the season.

He was genuinely a lovely guy and couldn’t have been further away from the irritable man we see in front of the press now. His comments yesterday about United being a bigger club than Spurs may still be true, but I know which club I’m backing (admittedly, slightly biased) for success over the next few years. How different our seasons could have been if we had had LVG in charge and not Pochettino. Lets just make sure we keep him now!
Mike, Southend (THFC obviously)
 
There seems to be a trajectory in the relationship between managers and the press. The real old hands have had enough and their contempt is obvious. It's interesting when you find ones that are cannier and cultivate good relationships with the journos. I get the impression that Poch is playing a canny game with them. We'll see. Notice the way in which his Argentine origins are never an issue with the red tops? Something interesting going on there. I think the press like him.
 
Guido 🇺🇦 Guido 🇺🇦 sheeeeeeeet. If true, that does make me soften on him.

In fairness, LVG comes across like a twat when he's in a room full of football journalists. Can't really blame him for that!
Just like in a shakesperian play (why deviate from a winning formular) every year the press will make sure they have a Villian (Maureen) a Hero (Raneri) the incompetent (list those who are in sack race) the wise and trusted (Pulis/Allardyce) and the up and coming (Poch/Howe/Sanchez-Flores who will always be linked with moves away). Depending on their result that week Wenger goes into every category except the up and coming. When things are slow it's then always worth chucking in race wars, this will range from English vs Foreign to Black vs White.
 
There seems to be a trajectory in the relationship between managers and the press. The real old hands have had enough and their contempt is obvious. It's interesting when you find ones that are cannier and cultivate good relationships with the journos. I get the impression that Poch is playing a canny game with them. We'll see. Notice the way in which his Argentine origins are never an issue with the red tops? Something interesting going on there. I think the press like him.
The main thing the press are hating right now is that there are two dignified men placed 1st and 2nd in the League. This has to be pissing them off, they thrive on the shit slinging Maureen and Wenger were always good value.

On a side note, it's fucked me off for ages is when a manager "plays mind games" and the press then right about how whatever was said is supposed to be mind games, yet they never ask beyond that. Ranieri buys a pizza, for some unknown reason this is supposed to be amazing news so let's writes about it for a week, the following week press then say how amazing Ranieri is for deflecting the pressure away from the players by talking about pizzas. Yet no one in the press pack says, fuck off Ranieri and you boring bastard, no one wants to know about your pizzas let's talk about football.
 
"Let's talk about football."

What's our model for talking about football? A problem with journalism is that it tends towards the short-form, because we the audience have, let's face it, short attention spans. The journos are probably more articulate than the managers they interview. And serving managers might not want to give away their whole game plan. And then there's the trust issues that plague the manager/hack relationship.

So, who in management gives good football talk? What are the qualities we respect? Can we ever square this circle?
 
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