LVG: Man Utd is a commercial club, not like Bayern Munich.

Rolaholic

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Madrid do not have a monopoly in Spain at all unless the definition changed all of a sudden

There used to be a duopoly for years sure but even that hasn't been the case for quite some time now

They're just ruthless about the on field product and cut no corners when it comes to fielding teams that can challenge for trophies yearly as that's an integral part of their identity as a club.

They care much more about on pitch success than off the pitch and they learned from the mistakes they made when that balance had been upended during their galactico era that allowed Barcelona to truly ascend in Europe.

Off the pitch success will always come organically when there is sustained success on the pitch
 

Hughie77

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He was better than Moyes and Ole with a worse squad than either and he had the best record against our top rivals of any of our managers post-Fergie



Saying he's our worst manager since is simply not the case
Agree, LVG just didn't get the right players in at the time, commercial has he said, we got Falcao, Dimaria, both turned out to be not right. I liked LVGs style of football he kept possession and the managers since have not.
 

Chesterlestreet

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He doesn't come across as a petty individual, he is just pointing out something obvious.
I tend to agree with this.

LVG is hardly a diplomatic person and he's probably capable of holding grudges - but I've never had the impression that he's petty. He has no reason to like (or even respect) the people who run Manchester United. The way he was shown the door was very shabby, nobody can blame him for being pissed off about that.

Also, as others have pointed out, he isn't saying that United is "commercial" in the sense that the club isn't a non-profit organization, but rather in the sense that the club is primarily focused on making money (rather than winning things). This, at least, is entirely consistent with what he's said previously.

Finally, it is possible to agree with something an ex-manager says even if you don't like the guy (or think he was a horrible manager). That goes for the lot of them, not just LVG.

ETA Might also say that I don't look upon comments like these as an attack on Manchester United, the historically great football club. I rather see them as an attack on what we've turned into. I'd like to think LVG would agree with that.
 

BrilliantOrange

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A lot of people here seem to think that 'Louis Van Gaal failed as a coach at United' and 'Louis van Gaal is right and not petty when saying United is a commercial club' are two completely isolated non-overlapping circles...
 

Wiesenlooser

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A lot of people here seem to think that 'Louis Van Gaal failed as a coach at United' and 'Louis van Gaal is right and not petty when saying United is a commercial club' are two completely isolated non-overlapping circles...
I think he has every right to be petty the way he got outed. Other than that… he retired from club management and if you look back at his career I don’t think there is a reason for him to be petty. He managed Barcelona, Bayern and United, he won the Champions League.
 

TommyDocYears

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Is he wrong?

United used to have traditions. But it seems like we’ve fallen out of touch with that since Sir Alex retired.

But Van Gaal was a big part of that too... the majority of his signings were not Manchester United players. It was obvious to me that Depay, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger and Darmian wouldn’t work out here. The two LVG signings I was actually excited about; Di Maria and Falcao turned out to be two flops. And that was mostly down to LVG himself.

Mourinho’s kind of getting us back on track... Pogba, Ibra, Sanchez, Bailly and Matic are all what I’d call proper United players. I could see them all under Ferguson winning titles.... but Mkhitaryan was an obvious one that was never gonna make it here. That’s the only one Mourinho got wrong IMO.

Having said all that, I wish we would become more about the football again. I miss the days when we had an British core. Nowadays we just seem to be chucking hundreds of thousands at “world class” players and hoping they’ll fit the bill of what a United player is all about. It’s just not that simple. I don’t think Luis Figo would have worked out at United as well as say... David Beckham did. That doesn’t mean Beckham is the better player... it just means he’s more suited to the club and we need to make better judgements going forward.
LVG is correct , once the “Football Club” was removed from the club badge we became a “Brand” . On that point I notice BT Sport more often than not show the traditional Utd badge on their graphics when Utd are on …
 
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tjb

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Agree, LVG just didn't get the right players in at the time, commercial has he said, we got Falcao, Dimaria, both turned out to be not right. I liked LVGs style of football he kept possession and the managers since have not.
LVG chose not to get the right players. He is the one responsible for most of the deadwood Mourinho had to deal with.
More importantly, people act like United is the only club/country he has had his problems at.
This was the man that created the chaos and tactical failures that led to one of the strongest dutch teams we have seen not making the world cup in 2002.
He was responsible for Barca's poor 2003 season, playing Luis Enrique on the left wing and forcing players into formations that didn't suit the team.
He was the manager that allowed Dortmund's rise to occur despite Bayern having far more resources than them. His Bayern team did not play great football.
The dutch team he then had in 2014 also did not play great football and were like England in 2018, getting to the semi's due to not having to face any real competition.
He then joined United and decided to completely tear apart the squad. Sold players like Nani, then cried for parts of the season about needing a winger. He spent half a season failing with the 352, something which no other top team would have allowed him to do. He tried brushing his own ego by bringing through the likes of Paddy Mcnair, Tyler Blackett etc to suit that 352, players who had no business playing for United. He then had a brief period in the spring of 2015 when he had us playing decently, despite us never actually have a route to goal in his tenure at the club.
The 15-16 season then occurs, where he again brings in players who would turn out to be terrible for the club. He alienated our best players with his antics and ego, leading us to sell Di Maria earlier than expected. Where a successful manager would seek to find a role for their superstar, LVG was willing to waste resources for a project that clearly had no plan. He scrapped the 433 which had brought relative success for a very rigid 4231 that saw us completely struggle to do anything useful in the opposition's area of the pitch. We struggled immensely, and any other club would have sacked LVG in December that year. Instead we allowed him to stick around, having a failed season similar to what we are experiencing here, where the football was joyless and a squad which was the worst we have ever had despite the level of investment we had put in. Remember, this was before the Pogba and Neymar transfer, so the market was not as inflated at the time. Woodward's only mistake under LVG was to keep him long enough to create tension upon his departure. Absolutely terrible manager for us, who deluded many of our fans.

He had brilliant ideas and has had brilliant ideas about football throughout his career. He has on the occasion had success, particular when he is asked to do very little recruitment. However, he has very little regard for the club and countries he coaches and it shows in how he treats players, the clubs and in the way he operates in the transfer market. Brilliant coach, stupid man.
 

VanDeBank

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LVG mentioned he wanted Mane after Holland drew Senegal for the world cup.
 

phelans shorts

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Agree, LVG just didn't get the right players in at the time, commercial has he said, we got Falcao, Dimaria, both turned out to be not right. I liked LVGs style of football he kept possession and the managers since have not.
I simply refuse to believe that anyone with eyes enjoyed the tumescent shite we had to endure under him
 

Sparky_Hughes

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The football he had utd playing was the absolute drizzling shits. I'd rather guide my dad into my mum than ever sit through one of those matches again.
 

Abraxas

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Rangnick is a eminently sensible man. Whether he's good enough is one question but he generally talks sense. Louis is largely making excuses. Everybody is commercial these days. It was his job to buy good players and set them up, ultimately. How do you buy these players like Di Maria and Depay and how do you get paid shed loads and paid off in shed loads as manager if the club isn't commercial? It's all part of the same enterprise that is a modern football club.

Get on with it, that's the job of the next manager. Just get on with it and if you fail take your payoff and accept it like a man. They're always coming up with something, Mourinho moaned about transfers, Moyes cried about not getting enough time. The players moan about this and that. Never any of these guys fault and yet here we are.
 

tjb

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Rangnick is a eminently sensible man. Whether he's good enough is one question but he generally talks sense. Louis is largely making excuses. Everybody is commercial these days. It was his job to buy good players and set them up, ultimately. How do you buy these players like Di Maria and Depay and how do you get paid shed loads and paid off in shed loads as manager if the club isn't commercial? It's all part of the same enterprise that is a modern football club.

Get on with it, that's the job of the next manager. Just get on with it and if you fail take your payoff and accept it like a man. They're always coming up with something, Mourinho moaned about transfers, Moyes cried about not getting enough time. The players moan about this and that. Never any of these guys fault and yet here we are.
For me, he's the worst of the lot. Wasted so much money, time and resources for a philosophy that never came. Had us buying Rojo, Blind, Schneiderlin to replace players they were worse than. Should have been sacked way earlier than he was. Wasted half the season experimenting on a system that he had never used successfully outside of a four week period and didn't fit the personnel of the club. Only reason juanfield even occurred is due to how patient our fans and board were, waiting for his philosophy to be fulfilled. We literally played decently for a month under him. Then has the audacity to say we are commercial due to preseason commercial demands that almost any serious major team has to go through
 

stefan92

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He was the manager that allowed Dortmund's rise to occur despite Bayern having far more resources than them. His Bayern team did not play great football.
He took over a Bayern team that did not even qualify for the CL, gave them an identity and reached a CL final. Not his fault that Dortmund built a great team at the same time.
 

VeevaVee

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The football he had utd playing was the absolute drizzling shits. I'd rather guide my dad into my mum than ever sit through one of those matches again.
Was absolutely dire. The waffle he came out with about it too, and the cheek to chastise United fans for chanting 'attack'.
 

tenpoless

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Indeed. Every PL club is a commercial club. It's not like they are a non profit org. Every club in PL is known worldwide. Some are way more famous, sure. But they're all still worldwide brands.
 

united_99

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Also without our commercial deals how the hell did he think we bought him all those players? Not to mention that he actually wanted more / other completely unrealistic players like Müller.
6 years later still having digs at United.
 

UnitedFire

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Manchester United totally different to Bayern because we don't play in a one club league where all players filter to us and usually at throw away prices relative to Man Utd.

LVG just wanting to spend like he as at Disney land.

LVGs comments as boring and as irrelevant as his football.
 

Wolf1992

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Manchester United totally different to Bayern because we don't play in a one club league where all players filter to us and usually at throw away prices relative to Man Utd.
United did it in the 90s.

Oligarch and oil money stopped that.
 
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Flexdegea

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It's the only way we can buy players. We not state backed or backed with Oil money. We need to generate money.

Then you think of the money he spent and wasted while he was here, hard to take him serious.



Maybe he needs to word it woody etc only care about the numbers. But they fecked a lot of money at him to fix the team to win stuff, so surely he have to take that blame their as well.
 

Josep Dowling

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I thank the Oligarch and Oil money for that.
So you thank Roman coming in at a time where Arsenal were finishing second and first, then City buying any decent player you had whilst the Emirates Stadium debt crippled the club? Honestly I hate ABU behaviour by fans. Just don’t understand the hatred toward United. We have barely won anything for 10 years yet so many fans still target United. How many more leagues do City have to win until the hatred is directed their way?
 

Hughie77

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I simply refuse to believe that anyone with eyes enjoyed the tumescent shite we had to endure under him
Didn't he get a FA Cup, and the best record against top 6. tumescent was Jose after he decided to piss everyone off
 

Hughie77

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LVG chose not to get the right players. He is the one responsible for most of the deadwood Mourinho had to deal with.
More importantly, people act like United is the only club/country he has had his problems at.
This was the man that created the chaos and tactical failures that led to one of the strongest dutch teams we have seen not making the world cup in 2002.
He was responsible for Barca's poor 2003 season, playing Luis Enrique on the left wing and forcing players into formations that didn't suit the team.
He was the manager that allowed Dortmund's rise to occur despite Bayern having far more resources than them. His Bayern team did not play great football.
The dutch team he then had in 2014 also did not play great football and were like England in 2018, getting to the semi's due to not having to face any real competition.
He then joined United and decided to completely tear apart the squad. Sold players like Nani, then cried for parts of the season about needing a winger. He spent half a season failing with the 352, something which no other top team would have allowed him to do. He tried brushing his own ego by bringing through the likes of Paddy Mcnair, Tyler Blackett etc to suit that 352, players who had no business playing for United. He then had a brief period in the spring of 2015 when he had us playing decently, despite us never actually have a route to goal in his tenure at the club.
The 15-16 season then occurs, where he again brings in players who would turn out to be terrible for the club. He alienated our best players with his antics and ego, leading us to sell Di Maria earlier than expected. Where a successful manager would seek to find a role for their superstar, LVG was willing to waste resources for a project that clearly had no plan. He scrapped the 433 which had brought relative success for a very rigid 4231 that saw us completely struggle to do anything useful in the opposition's area of the pitch. We struggled immensely, and any other club would have sacked LVG in December that year. Instead we allowed him to stick around, having a failed season similar to what we are experiencing here, where the football was joyless and a squad which was the worst we have ever had despite the level of investment we had put in. Remember, this was before the Pogba and Neymar transfer, so the market was not as inflated at the time. Woodward's only mistake under LVG was to keep him long enough to create tension upon his departure. Absolutely terrible manager for us, who deluded many of our fans.

He had brilliant ideas and has had brilliant ideas about football throughout his career. He has on the occasion had success, particular when he is asked to do very little recruitment. However, he has very little regard for the club and countries he coaches and it shows in how he treats players, the clubs and in the way he operates in the transfer market. Brilliant coach, stupid man.
OK
 

FrankDrebin

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I cant remember us playing anyone remotely good when we won the FA Cup under LVG.
About time we deserved some luck in the draw though I guess.
 

Irwin99

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A lot of people here seem to think that 'Louis Van Gaal failed as a coach at United' and 'Louis van Gaal is right and not petty when saying United is a commercial club' are two completely isolated non-overlapping circles...
It's absolutely incredible that people don't realize this; it was exactly the same when i made a thread about players with bad attitudes and I mentioned Jose's assessment of some of those players- literally DOZENS of posters going on and on about how shite Jose was or defending him when that wasn't the point of the thread at all. It's like FFS!

Our fanbase has a really weird relationship with managers. It doesn't seem to occur to them that LVG-a proud and somewhat difficult old school coach- might be right in his assessment of the club AND that he might have been the wrong manager (separate issue). Similar can be said about Jose.
 

Adnan

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Van Gaal complained about the scheduling of the preseason tour and it's associated effects on his ability to prepare for the season. Van Gaal also made it clear in his own words that the 'structure wasn't bad' so one can't assume he was talking about structural issues at the club, because he quite clearly stated the structure wasn't bad.

Even, Mario Melchiot has come out and said he disagrees with Van Gaal and his words won't have any effect on ten Hag because all the top clubs are commercially driven.
 

Gazza

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Van Gaal complained about the scheduling of the preseason tour and it's associated effects on his ability to prepare for the season. Van Gaal also made it clear in his own words that the 'structure wasn't bad' so one can't assume he was talking about structural issues at the club, because he quite clearly stated the structure wasn't bad.

Even Mario Melchiot has come out and said he disagrees with Van Gaal and his words won't have any effect on ten Hag because all the top clubs are commercially driven.
Must say I wasn't expecting that
 

Escobar

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Lvg was a terrible manager, but he is not wrong here. We are very commercial and the decisions were not made by football people. But we are not alone here
 

Andycoleno9

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Lvg was a terrible manager, but he is not wrong here. We are very commercial and the decisions were not made by football people. But we are not alone here
If were are commercial club then people in charge would be hired based on their CV, not based on emotions