Former United manager, Louis van Gaal has criticized Ed Woodward by saying he has ‘zero understanding of football’. Van Gaal has blamed United’s chief executive for the club’s problems and says he simply isn’t up to the job.
Despite winning the FA Cup in his last game in charge, Van Gaal was sacked as United missed out on Champions League qualification following a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League. When asked if he felt betrayed by United’s decision, Van Gaal replied.
“At that moment I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed because what I hear from a lot of people is it was already done in December, January. I spoke every week with Woodward. After three lousy defeats in December, when we also went out of the Champions League, I have spoken with him and I said: ‘I can understand that you sack me. In a club like Manchester United, you cannot lose three times in a row.”
“Then he said: ‘No, never. I never shall fire you. Believe in yourself. Don’t read the papers.’ I think then you can feel betrayed but now I can better understand because he knew that the next year I would say goodbye. On the market was Mourinho. He is also a very good manager and Woodward thought that he had secured for Manchester United Mourinho’s top managerial level for years.”
Van Gaal, who has also been in charge of Ajax, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and Holland, told a German magazine: “At Bayern, the people in charge are football men. I always appreciated that. At Manchester United, on the other hand, Ed Woodward was installed as CEO. Somebody with zero understanding of football who was previously an investment banker. It cannot be a good thing when a club is run solely from a commercially-driven perspective.”