Louis Van Gaal: Man Utd is the biggest performance in my entire career

The Dutch tactician also revealed that while he did not sense any plot against him, his wife did.

Louis Van Gaal has revealed that he felt suffocated in the last stages of his role as Manchester United’s manager. The tactician has compared his experience as that of “his head being in a noose”. He credits his wife, Truus, for identifying the plans that the club had prior to his dismissal, and that the wheels were already in motion to find his replacement.

The 68-year-old, while talking to the Mirror expressed that, “The hardest thing was trying to survive as Manchester United’s manager when I had my head in a noose for six months. From January until the end of the season, my wife Truus warned me. She is a woman – and a woman has an instinct for things like this.”

“I did not see what Woodward was up to, but women have different qualities than men. I really did not sense that they were plotting something. I was wholly convinced that I’d be able to see out my contract and have a third season at United. And it was the biggest surprise of my life when Woodward sacked me,” Louis Van Gaal went on to add.

The rumours of Jose Mourinho being appointed as the replacement of Louis Van Gaal began way before in 2016. While the Dutchman must have been aware of the rumours, the FA Cup triumph served as a false sense of assurance for his job.

In that context, Louis Van Gaal added, “I had faced resistance internally at other clubs and federations before. But that was nothing compared to what I had to put up with at Man Utd. At Barcelona, I walked away because I was loyal to the president. I waved away £5 million. But my principles were more important at United – I had achieved so much there.”

The tactician looks back at his latter stages as United’s boss as an achievement for the reason that under him, several youngsters including Marcus Rashford were inducted into the senior squad, and the Red Devils also secured the FA Cup in sensational fashion. With another year left on his contract, Louis Van Gaal was immediately sacked after two days of winning the F.A.Cup.

Expectedly, he did not take kindly to those series of events, having been replaced by Mourinho, who had served as an assistant to him back in his Barcelona days. He says in that regard, “In my opinion, it should be Mourinho who should speak up about what happened – if he would be prepared to do so. But Mourinho does not have to call me anymore. I was left with my head in a noose, waiting to be hanged all that time after January.”

He concludes by making some notable statements about his time at Manchester United by saying that, “What I achieved at Man Utd, I consider the biggest performance in my entire career. We won the FA Cup with 10 men in extra time at Wembley. The FA Cup is the most prestigious national cup competition in the world, so I was immensely proud to win that.”