Culture shock awaits United's underachievers
Marc Fox
The feeling that David Moyes' character wasn't ever quite large enough to fill the Sir Alex Ferguson-sized void at Old Trafford was yesterday reinforced by the official appointment of Louis van Gaal as Manchester United manager.
After his switch from Everton as last summer, Moyes revealed his apprehension as being summoned to Ferguson's house to discuss the United vacancy, the nervousness at being on the brink of the greatest job - and challenge - in football at that time.
The overwhelming evidence on Louis van Gaal, from the numerous players that have played and won titles under him at Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich as well as his fellow managers, is that the Dutchman is not the type to be summoned anywhere.
Rather, one wonders whether the task of rebuilding Manchester United, the 19-time English champions in disarray after seasons of underinvestment in the first team playing staff under the Glazer ownership model and a disastrous 10 months under the stewardship of David Moyes, is big enough for Van Gaal.
There seems to be broad consensus that Van Gaal's unique brand of authoritarian leadership is just the antidote to the situation in which Manchester United find themselves in after finishing seventh in the Premier League following an error-strewn title defence under Moyes.
The parallels with Ferguson drawn by numerous commentators are notable.
Van Gaal's disciplined approach has been compared favourably with the vice-like grip with which the former manager ruled Old Trafford over a quarter of a century, with the clear connotation that the club are returning to a figurehead that will demand instant respect, and even spread fear in some quarters.
"He's very strict. When I was young I was scared of him and feared him a bit," Ronald de Boer, who played under Van Gaal for club and country, said this week.
The distinction with Moyes has also been drawn by many, with the younger Scot now painted as too weak to handle United's senior players, too quick to paint the club as the underdog, and too uncertain about his short- and long-term strategies.
Moyes, with the benefit of hindsight, may now be forever perceived as the sacrificial lamb that stood no chance after being anointed as the Chosen One by Ferguson.
But we must remember that he was selected in exactly the same manner as Van Gaal, namely as the person to carry Ferguson's torch and continue United's unremitting success domestically.
Moyes was even himself depicted as being cut from the same cloth as Ferguson in the sense of his background, managerial apprenticeship, and work ethic.
However, the United hierarchy are no longer is any mood for sentimentality after missing out on European football for the first time in the best part of two decades, and Van Gaal is seen as the taskmaster to instil the winning mentality that all too quickly ebbed away under Moyes.
It has been widely reported that the 62-year-old Van Gaal has enjoyed his fair share of disputes at his former clubs from falling out with Rivaldo at Barcelona to the recent clash of egos with Uli Hoeness, the former Bayern president, in Munich.
Earlier this year, Hoeness said, "Van Gaal's problem is not that he's god, but he's god's very own father. Louis was already there before the world even existed.
"If you look at the world from that perspective, like Van Gaal does, it's hard to see what the world really looks like."
Yet, these arguments have typically left Van Gaal's leadership untainted, with those players unwilling to adapt to his methods (Italian forward Luca Toni didn't last long at Bayern because he refused to sit up straight during team meals it is said) quickly deemed surplus to requirements.
Here again the parallels with Ferguson's approach to dealing with the obstinacy of former players such as David Beckham, Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy is marked.
The paradox is that while the Manchester United hierarchy aimed for stability and consistency when they appointed Moyes a year ago, they have now turned to the anti-Moyes in Van Gaal to clean up the mess - and yet the comparisons with Ferguson remain apparent.
The risk with the Van Gaal appointment is that the prospect of clashes with the likes of Wayne Rooney and even Ferguson himself seems to be high at first glance.
Yet, United must roll the dice, and with Ryan Giggs positioned as Van Gaal's assistant, many of the club's supporters believe that they have selected the right team this spring.
© Marc Fox & Soccerphile.com
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