Louis van Gaal: club won’t go behind my back to find replacement

Louis van Gaal would be disappointed if Ed Woodward, Manchester United's executive vice-chairman, and the club's owners, the Glazers, went behind his back to talk to a prospective new manager.

The Dutchman’s position has been in the balance since the poorest December in the club’s 138-year history, in which they failed to win and suffered four consecutive defeats, three in the league.

Woodward remains reluctant to sack Van Gaal and results have improved this year. Yet José Mourinho’s availability and the fact that United are six points behind fourth-placed Manchester City means the Dutchman’s ability to remain in place until his contract ends in the summer of 2017 is in doubt.

Van Gaal recognises his predicament, but says he would feel let down if Woodward and the Glazers did not inform him they were sounding out potential replacements.

“Then, I shall be disappointed, because that is the consequence of what I have said [that he trusts them]. In a football world, that is possible, I know, but I do not think that,” said Van Gaal. “I have a relationship with Ed and the Glazers – they shall tell me, I think.”

Van Gaal would never approach the hierarchy to ask if they had done so. “No,” he said. “I don’t think that I have to.”

Given United’s stance of offering no comment either publicly or privately, Van Gaal was asked if the club should make a statement in support of him.

“I am not agreeing because I have said many, many times: not all the media, but a lot of media, is inventing stories and you don’t have to answer on invented stories,” he said. “I agree with this policy of the club.”

Early fixture

United visit Sunderland for today’s early fixture. Van Gaal knows that the deficit to Manchester City can be made up but also that a defeat could precipitate a wobble as serious as December’s. Early that month, Wolfsburg knocked United out of the Champions League with a 3-2 winwin that started their losing run.

“In two games you can be level with your competitor,” he said. “That is the benefit of this system of three points. You have to win, and we can win when we are more consistent, when we can finish [off] the game.”

He recalled another bad run, from last April. "Last year we were at the end of the competition and eight points behind Chelsea. We had to go to Chelsea and we played them off the pitch, they have a counterattack, and it is 1-0. If we win that game, it is a different situation, also for Chelsea because we had that consistency.

“After the match we lose three matches in a row because it was a blow, because we had focused ourselves on that game and we did think, and I made them like that, that we could be the champions. The same thing happened at Wolfsburg. We were first in the group and then the blow. Five minutes before the end we were number one and five minutes later we are number three. Nobody realises that has an influence on everyone. Then we have to recover.

“It takes a long time, but that was also because of the injuries. But when I say that I have excuses, I do not want to have these excuses. I don’t want to say anything about injuries, but we have a group of 26 players and we have 11 injured players or very tired players. So we have to cope with that. I can cope with that because for most of the matches we are the better team.”

Van Gaal hinted that the 19-year-old full-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson will be offered a new contract. “We are dealing with that, of course, but you have to wait for an announcement,” he said.

– Guardian Service