09年佢自己講
Louis van Gaal agreed to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United
Louis van Gaal has revealed that he agreed to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United.
The only problem was that in 2002 Fergie staged a spectacular U-turn on his retirement plans and the Dutch coach’s ambition to become United boss was wrecked.
Van Gaal, now Bayern Munich boss, reveals his tie-up with United in the autobiography he launched last week.
He said: “It was before the World Cup of 2002. I was in contact with Manchester United through Peter Kenyon [then chief executive, above].
“It was said to me that Alex Ferguson was going to retire.
“The moment he’d go, I’d succeed him. But in the end Ferguson didn’t want to quit!’’ Van Gaal, who would have loved the United job, had led Ajax to two Champions League Finals and had also been boss of the Holland national side.
This was the time when United also courted Sven Goran Eriksson, who had led England to the World Cup finals that summer.
Van Gaal had also been the Barcelona coach, where he succeeded Sir Bobby Robson in controversial style.
It was back in 1997 when the ambitious Dutch coach arrived at the Nou Camp and Robson was shunted upstairs.
Van Gaal said: “The Barca president said Robson was the coach and I’d have a learning year with the youth team.
“But all of a sudden the president said, ‘Forget what we agreed, you are going to be the senior coach’.
“I honestly did not like it. But they just moved Robson upstairs. I thought it was awful towards Robson.
“The man had won three major trophies that season – the Cup-Winners’ Cup, the Spanish Cup and the Super Cup.
“But Barca said the football was poor. The Catalan people were harsh to Robson. What could he have done more?
“There was this game where he had led the team to a 7-1 victory. The crowd was not happy, it should have been 10-1. Unbelievable.’
