When we look back at the Louis van Gaal era at Manchester United, Ed Woodward will either be seen as a genius or a mug.
Most believe that he is tending towards the latter description right now and there still appears to be massive confusion as to who will be managing the club as of next season.
The question that we would simply love an answer to is
Do the board themselves even know what they are going to do?
The Times sport section leads with details of Louis van Gaal’s wages and the cost of firing him this summer:
The Times has learnt that more than half of Van Gaal’s £8 million annual package is based on a series of performance-related, loyalty and image rights clauses. The Dutchman will get a £400,000 bonus if United win the FA Cup and a £5 million payoff if he is sacked at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mail reckon that Jose Mourinho won’t wait another season for the Manchester United job, as was suggested, rather ridiculously, in some areas of the press this week.
They state:
Jose Mourinho refuses to wait another year for Manchester United job with club staff expecting Louis van Gaal to STAY on
We think that Jose Mourinho is communicating with Manchester United via the press because the club themselves simply don’t know what to do. Quite reasonably Jose wants to know if the Manchester United job will be available this summer because that is apparently his preferred destination.
But he wants employment next term and if Manchester United can’t make what seems to us the most simple of decisions soon then they will lose their best chance of taking the title next season.
Van Gaal and the Manchester United board may look to small signs of improvement to prove that progress is being made.
But surely the status quo isn’t where Van Gaal or the club would have wanted to be two years in to the Dutchman’s tenure?
Manchester United need Mourinho. If they don’t bring him in they will only have themselves to blame for continued decline, while the competitors gear up with the next generation of top managers like Klopp, Guardiola, Pochettino, Conte and Koeman.