Louis Van Gaal has been called many things throughout his controversial yet successful career. Call him a tactical genius or a philosopher, he will never truly be known for what he has actually done, whether it be accidentally or on purpose. To get an idea of what I’m talking about let’s go back, way back to Amsterdam, 1995.
Not-so-humble Beginnings
“Congratulations on signing the best coach in the world.” One might think this as some former player of the club or maybe a legend of the game commenting on Van Gaal’s potential to be the best someday. Nope. It was the young and arrogant Louis himself declaring his brilliance to the world. A 2nd placed finish and UEFA cup victory in the first season, then a 3rd place finish and a KNVB cup in his second. While many would attribute those successes to an in-form Dennis Bergkamp, the same cannot be said for the 1994–95 season, which brought Van Gaal into the limelight of global football and helped his claim to being the best. Ajax went undefeated in the league to defend their crown as champions of England and unexpectedly shocked Europe’s big boys to claim the Champions League crown. Now this was probably his most successful reign as a manager at any club, but he learnt a very important skill which would become intrinsic to him. The all-conquering Ajax team consisted of youngsters promoted from the youth system, youngsters who would go on to become household names. Patrick Kluivert, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf and Edwin van der Sar. These stars remained the core to the success that Ajax enjoyed in the upcoming seasons, making the team a part of the European elite, even if it was only for a little while. At the end of the 1997 season, it was time to move on. He received his knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau, after which there was a Catalonian adventure awaiting him.
Barcelona: Van Gaal vs Rivaldo and the media
Firstly, I would like to enumerate the fact that van Gaal had 2 tenures as Barcelona manager, one from ‘97-’00 and another from ‘02-’03. In 1997, Louis van Gaal took over from Sir Bobby Robson in Barcelona. Immediate success followed with back-to-back league wins in ’98 and ’99 and a Copa del Rey in ’98 as well. All through he had clashes with Rivaldo, the then European Player of the Year (in 1999). It began when van Gaal decided that he wanted Rivaldo to play down the left instead of the centre. He also had many clashes with the media, which he blamed on cultural differences. On his appointment he said,”I have achieved more with Ajax in six years than Barcelona has in one hundred years.” While his first tenure ended with a line made immortal in football journalism, “Amigos de la prensa. Yo me voy. Felicidades.” (Translation: Friends of the press. I am leaving. Congratulations.)
Now his second reign as Barça manager was worse, as he managed to stay on for barely one season, and when he left in January, Barcelona were 3 points from relegation. While the club recovered to somehow finish 6th, there was something else for which he will forever be remembered by Barcelona fans. He handed debuts to Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Victor Valdes. All of these players were the core of the group that won 6 trophies in a season under Guardiola. They were also part of the core of Spain’s golden generation which won the World Cup and 2 back-to-back Euros. Now, why I won’t write it off as coincidence is because the same happened again, that is, poor results, youth handed debuts, unrivalled success in the next few seasons after van Gaal’s departure.
A Bavarian Adventure
After Barcelona, van Gaal joined Ajax as a technical director but soon left after differences with then manager Ronald Koeman. He then had a “weird” spell with AZ, finishing 2nd, 3rd and 11th in the 05–06, 06–07, 07–08 seasons respectively. While this was will not be seen objectively successful, when he decided to leave in 2008, many players asked him to stay for one more season. At Barcelona, or as we will see in his following tenures as manager, no players would have done this. But, at AZ they did, and van Gaal delivered. They won the league with the best defensive record, but he left soon after.
On 1 July 2009, Louis van Gaal signed on as manager of FC Bayern München. A successful season followed, as Bayern won the league and cup double, and almost won the treble had it not been for his own student Mourinho’s Internazionale, who in turn won the treble themselves. But as it happened in Barcelona, it all fell apart in the second season. Bayern were knocked out of the Champions League in the first knockout stage by Internazionale and finished 3rd in the league. Although, Louis van Gaal wasn’t there to witness the finish to the season, as he was sacked on 10 April 2011.
While he had a falling out with star striker Luca Toni on his arrival, he generally had a very good relationship with the players. Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben established themselves as the wingers and stayed first choice till the 14–15 season, picking up a treble at when they and the rest of the team peaked. Speaking of the rest of the team, van Gaal was responsible for converting Bastian Schweinsteiger from a winger into a defensive midfielder, and he also handed debuts to David Alaba and Holger Badstuber. He was also responsible for making Thomas Mueller and Toni Kroos first team regulars. All in all, just as he did at Barcelona, he failed in his last season, but did lay the foundations for unrivalled success. Almost the same team went on to win the treble under Jupp Heynckes just 2 seasons after his sacking.
The Final(Dream) Destination
“It’s not just the theatre of Dreams, it was also the dream of Louis van Gaal.” The great man declared his love for the hallowed ground, as fans welcomed him as someone who would make up for a disappointing season under Moyes. After all, this was the same manager who had taken “the worst Netherlands team in years”, to 3rd place in the 2014 World Cup. It was also a chance for van Gaal to settle down and spend the last few years of his managerial career bringing a club back to its glory days, and recover some of the lost magic he once had. The 2014–15 season brought hope, as superstars such as Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao, along with youngsters Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw were signed in a summer overhaul. Pre-season was promising as well, but the season began with disaster. 4 competitive games without a win, including a humiliating 4–0 defeat to MK Dons. United recovered and they finished 4th in the Premier League. It was seen as a good season since, they had a decent FA cup run and Champions League football had returned.
The second season, things started to fall apart yet again for van Gaal. First, he had a falling out with Robin van Persie (read Rivaldo, Luca Toni) and was eventually sold. Then, United started having bad results, by December they were out of the League Cup, the Champions League and they had played 6 games without a win, their worse run since 2004. He had some saving grace after a decent run in the Europa League and then won the FA Cup, United’s first silverware in 2 seasons. But, as we saw with Bayern and Barcelona, his biggest contribution to the club was giving the youth a chance and setting up for the future. Manchester United’s best outfield player in 15–16 was Anthony Martial, who became the world’s most expensive teenager. Players like Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Paddy McNair were handed senior debuts under van Gaal’s reign. The piece de resistance, although, was Marcus Rashford. The 18-year old striker suddenly found himself in the starting 11 in a Europa League game after injury struck Martial, and the rest is history.
Conclusion
I wanted to write this blog mainly because I feel van Gaal is a misunderstood genius. Many would like to call it luck or coincidence, but the same pattern of going to a big club stuck in mediocrity, instil a philosophy that may or may not have worked, usually have bad results in his last season, but promoted youngsters, changed positions of players and made new first team regulars. This set up the big club for success in later years. This happened at Barcelona and Bayern München, and we can see the early signs at Manchester United. He is generally a good coach who proved himself at Ajax and by winning titles across all the leagues that he has played in and the clubs that he has managed. He was also responsible for mentoring 2 of the greatest managers of this generation: Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. Say what you will, LVG will definitely go down in history, whether as a “philosopher” or a tactical genius, only time will tell.
