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Van Gaal - "a lot of Saint players were offered to us"


Plumstead_Saint

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/05/louis-van-gaal-southampton-ronald-koeman-manchester-united

 

Van Gaal then claimed some of the opposition could have been at Old Trafford by now, in addition to the £28m summer signing Luke Shaw.

“They have a very good squad. I know a lot of players and a lot of players were offered to us.”

 

Is he talking out his *rse or do you think anyone was touted to United [apart from Osvaldo or Ramirez]?

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Whether current or former players he's probably referring to agents "offering" their players rather than the club. You can be sure Morgan's agent, for example, is on the phone to every big club in Europe seeing who might be interested in signing him in January or the summer. That's his job

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I struggled through the LvG autobiography on holiday this summer.

What a bore, so far up his own and very inflexible tactically and in his man management. RK certainly won their dual when at Ajax and maybe is a better tactician and man manager anyway.Unfortunately our man just spends too much time getting on with the job rather than wallowing in the glory of it all !

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Anyone who signs for us would have been touted round every other big club.

 

I am sure Koeman gets calls and emails and DVDs about players who aren't good enough for us, so why wouldn't a broker or agent connected to, say, Tadic tout him to Man United, City and Chelsea?

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I want to find out whether there will be wine shared or not.

Was the tiny room at Liverpool?

 

from Mirror:

 

Koeman added: “One of the *traditions in England is, that when you play at home, you invite the opposition manager for a drink.

 

“I love that kind of thing. It made me smile the first time I was invited into a tiny little room with no space at all. The idea to offer the other manager a glass of wine is wonderful. It is part of English football and I have made it part of my routine.”

 

 

Yet...(from Guardian)

 

Van Gaal says he will be happy to shake Koeman’s hand – “That will not be a problem” – but doubts if he will join him later for a drink because he will probably not get the opportunity. “I have heard of this English custom but I don’t know where managers find the time,” he said. “On matchdays I am talking to the press before and after the game and in between I am talking to my players. I managed to have a chat with Mark Hughes’s assistants after the last game against Stoke but Mark Hughes himself was speaking to the press and then I had to do the same. On matchdays I rarely get the time to talk to opposing managers.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/05/louis-van-gaal-southampton-ronald-koeman-manchester-united

 

Van Gaal then claimed some of the opposition could have been at Old Trafford by now, in addition to the £28m summer signing Luke Shaw.

“They have a very good squad. I know a lot of players and a lot of players were offered to us.”

 

Is he talking out his *rse or do you think anyone was touted to United [apart from Osvaldo or Ramirez]?

 

I would assume he means offered by agents or, perhaps, was referring to lallana.

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Blimey, that Ajax situation sounds horrendous. This is intriguing though...

 

Might it boil over again? According to Mossou, there is a lot more to both men than English football has seen so far. “Koeman seems to be quite neutral and polite. Which is quite smart, because he doesn’t yet have the knowledge to use the media. In Holland, he played his mind games through the media.

“Van Gaal is a more extreme character than Koeman. But Koeman is also a street-fighter. He likes a little bit of a fight in the media. Van Gaal is a guy who fights with the media, but he doesn’t use the media to fight. That’s the difference.”

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The background between the two managers is a godsend to the media, especially as it also involves the biggest club in British football. The feud between Van Gaal and Koeman might have died down over the years, but it suits the media to give the embers a good raking to add spice to the fixture tonight. This is also naturally the reason for the match being moved to tonight for Sky, who would like nothing better than for the two managers to get hot under the collar with each other and in the best case scenario for them, come to blows. What they don't want is a low score bore-draw, a conciliatory handshake and mutual appreciation in the post-match interviews.

 

So some of our players could have gone to Manchester United? What a revelation that they could have gone there, to arguably the top glory club in the World, where they would earn themselves several times more dosh than here. In reality, this is just Van Gaal's alternative version of how much bigger his house in the Algarve is than Koeman's. Effectively it is his little bit of pre-match psychology, he could have had any of our players, but they weren't good enough for them.

 

It really would be great if we could stuff them and their control-freak knob of a manager, but I suspect that crucial injuries to our key midfield players will have hampered our chances.

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/05/louis-van-gaal-southampton-ronald-koeman-manchester-united

 

Van Gaal then claimed some of the opposition could have been at Old Trafford by now, in addition to the £28m summer signing Luke Shaw.

“They have a very good squad. I know a lot of players and a lot of players were offered to us.”

 

Is he talking out his *rse or do you think anyone was touted to United [apart from Osvaldo or Ramirez]?

 

How strange that this story appears right before we play them. :D

 

I really don't get how these kind of mind games are supposed to work, they don't demean the opposition, they don't weaken the players, who either think "that's wrong" if they weren't liked or are likely to be happy with the decision they've made anyway given our position. It doesn't put it in their mind that they might like to play for Man U, either. It's just pointless.

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