Van Gaal almost the perfect medium-term appointment

Far from a concern, the amount of time it has taken for Louis van Gaal to finally be confirmed as Manchester United manager should serve as a source of encouragement for the club.

This was not someone simply happy to be in the job, or honoured to just be associated with it.

Van Gaal wanted everything absolutely right, and to properly negotiate all the fine details.

In short, and at the very least, he has the precise type of assertive personality that such a big job fundamentally requires.

The contrast with his predecessor could not be clearer. While David Moyes did eventually make costly decisions of his own as regards the backroom staff, there was never any question of the former Everton manager turning down United once Alex Ferguson had beckoned him to his house.

It was all assumed, there wasn’t the same level of assertion. As a consequence, it wasn’t too long until you could no longer make any assumptions about United any more. All bets were off; they were a team there to be beaten.

This is perhaps the one positive for United from Moyes’ disastrous time in charge of the club. People will no longer only compare the current boss to Ferguson, but also his underwhelming initial replacement.

There was always a school of thought it was better to be the man after the man who directly succeeded Ferguson. There is also an argument that, if they were unable or unwilling to get a Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola, Van Gaal was the type of man they should have gone for in the first place.

It certainly felt like United overreached in trying to replace virtually element of Ferguson’s reign straight away, not least the longevity. Granting Moyes six years, as if that wasn’t something that should not be earned, sent out the wrong message.

Now, it appears chief executive Ed Woodward has learned some of his lessons. If United cannot get a true legacy-builder such as Jurgen Klopp, then Van Gaal is almost the perfect medium-term option in the meantime. He ticks almost every box in that regard.

For a start, he is not exactly a gamble in terms of results. His record brings certain guarantees. Given the scale of issues that were always going to become apparent once Ferguson retired, it was really the aspect United needed to look to first. Remaining competitive would have allowed the club to begin fixing the variety of other issues, but without the extra pressure of extreme crisis.

Van Gaal is certainly a competitor, as Patrick Kluivert told The Irish Examiner. “He is a winner,” the Dutch assistant manager says. “That mentality is very important. He wins games.”

To put it bluntly, he will have Manchester United feeling like Manchester United again.

Van Gaal has also displayed a capacity for immediately having a positive effect on clubs, even if it ends in personal acrimony. The examples are there from Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich.

David Endt, who was Ajax team manager in the 90s when Van Gaal was head coach there, also insists it would be foolish to think he is anyway outdated.

“At Ajax and Barcelona, he was a little ahead of his time and a lot has been copied from his philosophy,” Endt says. “He has always been open for new ideas in football, never reluctant to a scientific approaches.

“He keeps himself aware of what is happening in the football world. You cannot call him an old-fashioned trainer, not at all.”

Neither does he fall back on the old guard. Quite the opposite. At every team he’s been at, Van Gaal put considerable trust into younger players who would go on to become dominant professionals.

“I think I’m one of the best examples,” Kluivert says. “That’s his philosophy.”

The former Ajax forward has also always had a warm relationship with Van Gaal, despite perceptions of a severe sergeant major.

“He knows what he wants,” Kluivert says.

“He is very straight to everybody, and I think that’s very important if you play high-level soccer.”

It has also led to some highly-dramatic fall-outs, and acrimonious departures. The key, however, is that those ruptures don’t ruin teams in the manner of other managers.

By contrast, as seen at both Barca and Bayern, Van Gaal tends to help put in a fine base with the right ideas.

That could be perfect if someone like Klopp was then ready to take over in three years’ time. It is also one reason why Van Gaal may be the perfect medium-term choice.