TERRACE TALK: The Man United Way or the highway warning for Louis van Gaal

In an idle moment during a recent United match — and let’s face it, there’ve been plenty to fill — my cronies were pondering upon the precise nature of Louis Van Gaal’s oft-cited yet ill-defined ‘philosophy’.

“It’s existentialism.” “How so?” “I wish he didn’t exist.” “Ha. To me, it’s just nihilism.” “Shouldn’t that be nil-nilism?” Ouch.

“I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible” as Morrissey once sang. Except, of course, that it’s still terrible.