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Manchester United will finish in top 4Manchester United finished off the podium for the first time since 1991 under David Moyes last season but a good summer of spending and they will be competing for UEFA Champions League football again this season. The Red Devils have already been successful in their pursuit of Southampton’s Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera from Athletic Bilbao. There biggest signing however has been manager Louis van Gaal. Manchester United are now down to 6.6 third favourites to win the Premier League this season following their manager’s performances during the World Cup. They are 1.58 to finish in the top four with Betfair which suggests a general sense of confidence in the record English champions after a dismal 2013-14. Dutch coach van Gaal has a track record of success – the four previous clubs he has been at he has won the league. His first job came at Ajax in the early 1990s where he guided them to three league titles, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup during his six years in charge. The Dutch club have not won another European honour since his departure in 1997. Louis van Gaal’s time at Ajax saw him bring through the likes of future Dutch stars Edgar Davids, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Patrick Kluivert, Michael Reiziger, Clarence Seedorf and Edwin van der Sar from the youth academy. Success at Ajax got Louis van Gaal the Barcelona job in 1997, taking over from Sir Bobby Robson. His time at Camp Nou was successful too – winning the league title in two of his three seasons, before leaving at the end of the 1999-2000 season after losing out on the league title to Deportivo de La Coruña. This Barcelona team included the likes of Rivaldo, Winston Bogade, Michael Reiziger, Robert Prosinecki, Kluivert, the de Boers, Phillip Cocu and Jari Litmanen. His first spell in charge of the Netherlands followed, but it would be a disastrous one. They failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea – the last time the Oranje have not qualified for a major tournament. Barcelona would offer him a second spell following a stint in charge of the national team, but this time it was very unsuccessful. The Spanish giants were 15th when van Gaal departed in 2003. After a short stint at Ajax as technical director, up-and-coming AZ Alkmaar appointed Louis van Gaal as their head coach in the summer of 2005. After back-to-back runners-up spots in the Eredivisie and an 11th place finish in this third season, van Gaal’s AZ surprised the nation by winning the league for the first time in 28 years, 11 points ahead of Steve McClaren’s FC Twente and with the best defence in the league. Bayern Munich came calling at that point, making him their first foreign manager since 1998. The German giants had finished runners-up to VfL Wolfsburg the previous season, but with signings that included Mario Gómez, Arjen Robben, Ivica Olić and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Bayern would win the league during the Dutch head coach’s first season in charge. They also reached the UEFA Champions League final that season, losing to José Mourinho’s Internazionale in the final. The following season was one big hangover for the club – a third place finish and van Gaal out of work. The Netherlands offered van Gaal a second chance in the summer of 2012 after they’d lost all three games under Bert van Marwijk. In two years, van Gaal put together a young squad with experienced players going forward – Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. They thrashed Spain 5-1 to open their 2014 World Cup, before beating Australia, Chile and Mexico to reach the quarter-finals. They did everything but score versus Costa Rica in their quarter-final penalty shootout win but were undone by Argentina in the semi-finals as they only mustered one attempt on target in two ours. The country came back home in third place to a hero’s welcome. Louis van Gaal had already agreed to join Manchester United before the tournament. What we saw from the Netherlands during this summer’s World Cup were a number of different formations and players playing in different formations under van Gaal. His flexible approach suggests that if he has the right players at Old Trafford, he’ll be capable of great things. Manchester United have been linked to a number of stars and one would think signing a couple of them will put van Gaal in a great position to get back into the top four and Champions League football the following season.
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