You don’t have to be an expert to say that Louis van Gaal’s tenure at Manchester United was a failure. Van Gaal was made the manager with the task of bringing United back into the “Top 4” fold, but the Dutchman’s time with Manchester United ended up pretty much like the “Fantastic-4” reboot. But what has Jose Mourinho done so far that has impressed the Red Devils fans. What was wrong during Van Gaal’s period at Manchester?
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Going through Van Gaal’s transfer spending at United, we can find that the Dutchman signed 16 players by spending an excess of £200,000,000. But the question is, is the success of transfer window activity rated by only on one factor – the number of players bought or sold? Or is it rated based on the total spending?
No. But both are deciding factors and there are many other such decisive elements like net spending, which shows how profitable the club was during the transfer window, the wage spending on the new signings and the rest of the squad, and the age of the players brought.
The effect of the new players on the team’s performance is also one good factor on which a club's transfer activity can be evaluated. Of all the players Van Gaal brought into the team, only Anthony Martial looked like a solid buy. The performances of the few of the newcomers fluctuated while a couple of players failed to make their impact felt.
Exit Louis van Gaal. Enter Jose Mourinho.
Before discussing what Mourinho has done in the last two months, let me just give a brief introduction to how he has handled the transfer windows in his career – starting from Chelsea to Manchester United. When he first took charge at Chelsea, Mourinho signed Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, and Ricardo Carvalho – to fortify the front line, midfield, and defence of the West London club.
At Inter Milan, in the summer transfer window of the treble winning season, Mourinho made three purchases – Diego Milito, Wesley Sneijder, and Thiago Motta. Samuel Eto’o too joined from Barcelona.
In Madrid, the core of his Real Madrid team was Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Pepe, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, and Angel di Maria – the latter three were signed during Mourinho’s first season.
Back to Chelsea, Mourinho managed with what he could in the first season. In the second, Cesc Fabregas, Thibaut Courtois, and Diego Costa came in and formed the spine of the team that won the league title.
At United, he has made four crucial signings – Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Paul Pogba. Looking at each one of his previous signings, they were made with the clear intention of improvement and addition of value to the existing squad. United had a leaky back four – Bailly is the solution. The team needed an experienced and lethal attack upfront – Ibrahimovic.
To fix the midfield conundrum - Pogba and Mkhitaryan! Jose Mourinho has done what was the most basic need for Manchester United to get back to its winning mentality that was lost after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. Moreover, all these signings show how focused Mourinho remains when rebuilding a squad.
The players signed during Van Gaal’s reign are in no way of lesser calibre than those signed under Mourinho. Morgan Schneiderlin was one of the key players behind Southampton’s rise. Angel di Maria was the star of the Champions League winning Real Madrid team just like Pogba was a big part of Juventus's domination in Italy. Like Bailly, Memphis Depay was promising when he came to Manchester. Like Ibrahimovic, Bastian Schweinsteiger is a veteran. Yet Van Gaal tripped.
If there was a fault, as we have seen and United fans have experienced, there was one big mistake – it was Van Gaal’s thinking. What Van Gaal did was buy whatever he could. There was no particular focus or vision. Even if there was a vision, it was the slow but steady development of Manchester United with the inflow of youngsters from the academy.
When he was tasked with the rebuilding of a club of United’s stature within only two years, Van Gaal chose the less effective path of action. Mourinho is going in the exactly opposite direction. He is buying for the sake of fixing the team.
Simon Sinek, a business writer and management expert, says what we do is not important, but why we do is! Mourinho has a strong and profound reason for whatever he is doing. To say that Van Gaal didn’t have a “why” question behind his reasoning is quite disrespectful. He had many such “why” questions. He failed to properly prioritise the one that was most important. He knew the answer to the “how” questions – by developing young talent and bringing in as many talented players as possible.
In 2010, Jose Mourinho’s tactical shrewdness beat Louis van Gaal on the football field. Almost six years later, Mourinho, a student of Van Gaal, is again emerging as the victor in this off the field battle by showing how good a manager he is in terms of keeping every aspect of his job under control.
This shouldn’t be unexpected as it is a natural cycle just like an athlete overshadowing his coach, who himself was a great athlete. But what should be surprising is Van Gaal’s unwillingness to change, to adapt to the ever-changing aspects of football environment and his emollient nature while engaging in serious matters.
