Louis Van Gaal - An Ode to Candid Wisdom
"I cry almost every day. There’s always something that touches me."
“The media likes me because I give honest answers. How many people in football give honest answers? I don't lie. Always the truth. OK, maybe my truth. But it is the truth.”
Misunderstandings are one of the great enemies of progress. Words have power, but it depends on how they’re interpreted whether the result will be positive or negative.
In the digital age, many understand that a 10-second clip/quote can be stripped of the context and posted to social media or used in a headline which will completely change the original meaning.
So that leaves the people forced to stand up in front of the cameras and say these words with few options of how to proceed through the minefield.
They can say nothing at all, but no message can be just as problematic as a misunderstood one.
They could shroud their words in subtext and double entendre, giving those listening something to work with without truly showing their hand.
Or they can be brutally and unapologetically honest.
Brutal honesty is often something that can be misconstrued or frowned upon; it goes against social convention to tell people what you really think and often leads to alienation.
But there are a few who can navigate the road less travelled and still arrive at their desired destination. Speak their minds while still commanding respect and authority.
It’s a delicate balance to strike, but one that Louis van Gaal has navigated throughout his career whether it be intentionally or unintentionally.
And that’s why he’s earned the tag ‘the last honest man in football'.
"I think it's ridiculous that the World Cup is there. We are playing in a country where FIFA says they want to help develop football. That is bullshit. But it doesn't matter. The tournament in Qatar is about money and commercial interest. That is what matters to FIFA."
The 2022 World Cup will probably mark the final games of Van Gaal’s long and illustrious career. He will lead one of the strongest Netherlands sides of possibly the last two decades in their search for their first win.
The 71-year-old manager who overcame cancer only a few months ago and now will try and succeed where others have failed.
But this isn’t an article about the Netherlands and their chances in Qatar, if you want that then I must recommend Kees van Hemmen’s piece on the side, which you can read here.
This is about the man himself, not on the pitch, but behind the press conference’s microphone. A revolutionary manager but also one of the greatest wordsmiths the footballing world has ever seen.
A man who clashed with Johan Cruyff but also inspired Jose Mourinho. A true lyricist; a top five greatest MC dead or alive. His library of quotable statements overflowing like tulip fields during a Dutch Spring.
Referring to his words as brutal honesty seems disingenuous however so instead this will be an ode to the candid wisdom of Van Gaal.
“Congratulations on signing the best coach in the world.”
Van Gaal’s feud with fellow coach and Dutch icon Johan Cruyff was well documented. Some believe that ironically the disagreements between two men who didn’t mince their words began with a misunderstanding over a Christmas dinner in 1989.
When asked about the event, Cruyff seemed to suggest that if Van Gaal thought he hadn’t thanked him for the meal then he must ‘have Alzheimer's’.
While this could have had some bearing on their relationship, I think the main reason for their clashes was that they were both idealogues. They had clear ideas about how football should be played and were fighting for the ‘soul’ of Dutch football, physically manifested in how Ajax performed.
Cruyff liked individuality and expression, while Van Gaal preferred rigid structure and repeatable patterns (this is a really simplistic way of talking about both styles and if we’re being honest, they probably had more similarities than they wanted to see).
Both wanted to win and more importantly, be right. Their hard-headed ‘Dutchness’ probably also didn’t help the tensions.
Cruyff was very overt in his criticism of Van Gaal, with the former manager arguing to the Ajax board against his appointment and also regularly questioning his decisions in the media.
Van Gaal was however a little more covert with his daggers towards his compatriot, while still maintaining his brand of honesty, as you can see above.
He was incredibly successful with Ajax, winning 11 trophies including three league titles and a Champions League.
So, of course, Barcelona, another one of Cruyff’s former teams came calling and when appointed, Van Gaal continued his brand of thoughtful arrogance.
"I have achieved more with Ajax in six years than Barcelona has in one hundred years."
I’m not going to continue down the line of his career chronologically, just know that Cruyff fired some more barbs and one memorable quote that came out of his Barcelona spell was that the Brazillian striker Giovanni, who Van Gaal dropped, compared him to Hitler.
It is clear that he was and probably still is arrogant and feels the need to prove himself; that’s what happens when you were consistently in the shadow of one of the most influential managers in football history and he had his eyes trained on you like a hawk waiting for you to stumble.
This of course came back to bite him while managing the national team in the early 2000s, claiming that he would lead them to a World Cup win but then failed to qualify for the 2002 edition of the tournament. He resigned.
His managerial career shows that his personality is not just limited to the words he says but also how he approaches his job, he is all in, and his heart is on his sleeve.
You could say it’s part of one big picture, but in fact, it is a long and ever-changing tapestry; you are always seeing the real Van Gaal but what version of him you see depends on which part of his career you’re looking at.
“The most important thing about a person is that you know who you are and what you want. You should be capable of introspection and evaluate yourself.”
Some have said that in his older years he has mellowed, but I don’t quite think that is true. It’s the same Van Gaal but now with the viewpoint of an older man.
He has a lot more experience under his belt and this informs the candid wisdom he delivers, but as you saw while he was manager of Manchester United, he still can act as he did as a younger man.
And when he was a younger man (in 2009) he used to say stuff like this.
“I have the body of a God. Lederhosen suits me. But I also have a belly.”
Fans will remember his incredulous actions when speaking to the fourth official during United’s game against Arsenal, mimicking an alleged dive by Alexis Sanchez by throwing himself to the floor.
There was also the End of Season awards ceremony where he gave a passionate speech while heavily intoxicated, declaring loudly that United were ‘Louis Van Gaal’s Army’.
And of course, there was his response in defence of Wayne Rooney, directed to a journalist as he left his press conference.
"You have criticised him, I don’t. You too. Fat man. There.”
The insult aside, I think this is how Van Gaal endears himself to the players. If he feels you need criticising he will, but if he doesn’t he will defend you tooth and nail.
Of course, the language barrier did create some issues for Van Gaal during his time in Manchester and his candidness did create some unintentionally funny moments (moments that you still get to this day as he truly does not care what people think).
His quotable lines about wanting his players to ‘be horny’ and comparing a hair pull to ‘sex masochism’ will live long in people's memories.
“I speak English my way, but people understand it. You can understand everything I say, and that's the most important thing.”
You can always see that he is passionate about football and I feel like it is this passion that has brought him to the national team on three different occasions.
It might also be a bit of arrogance or pride that he wants to be the Dutch manager who delivers the World Cup to his country and cements his place in history ahead of the likes of Rinus Michels and in some ways even ahead of his great rival Cruyff.
And he has always made clear that he sees the World Cup as the pinnacle of the sport.
“A World Cup is always special because it is the highest podium on which you can show your abilities as an individual player or coach, and as a team.”
I think it’s also important to note that Van Gaal was never a great footballer like Johan Cruyff was, therefore he had to build his managerial career from scratch.
He had to work his way up to the Ajax job, first as an assistant coach at AZ Alkmaar, then as a youth coach at Ajax followed by the assistant coach at Ajax before he was given the top job there.
Some would see that as a weakness, but the 71-year-old has always described it as a strength.
“The basis of my confidence is that I wasn't a talented player. I was a talented human being. At school, I always had good figures. I was the captain of all my football teams. I studied physical education at the Academy, so I learned to analyse, to observe, and to take decisions.”
So now we approach the end, whether the Netherlands win the trophy or not these are likely the last games of one of the sport’s greatest entertainers.
I would list off some of his greatest moments so far from his numerous press conferences in the build-up, but there are too many to count. Just yesterday he replied to a question about the team’s families being allowed in the camp by saying that his wife was already there but he didn’t really need her.
The players are fully behind him and his confidence and passion have rubbed off on them; Steven Berghuis, Daley Blind and Virgil van Dijk to name just a few have spoken emphatically about the manager.
He builds relationships with his players, treating them as people rather than just players in a system. A friend and a mentor rather than a cold dictator (though Giovanni would disagree).
“It's a principle of my philosophy that you have to respect the individual human being.”
And once he lights a fire in his players, he allows himself to get carried away as well. He originally played down the Netherlands’ chances of winning the World Cup, citing that ‘he has a brain’, but now he seems fully invested in bringing the trophy home with the Oranje.
And as a fan of the sport, you can truly appreciate that mindset; seeing someone who has been in the sport so long lighting up like a father watching his kids score their first goal for their school team. The joy and pride are clear in his eyes.
“I want to become World Champions and my players want this too! And if I look up and stare at this picture I think… damn.. these are my boys.”
He is a principled and outspoken character who both as a fan and now as a journalist has been a pleasure to watch.
As an England fan, I can’t say that I hope he wins the World Cup, but if England were to crash out, then I feel like I can’t help but get behind Louis Van Gaal’s new army.
Some love the man, some hate him. But he adds colour and intrigue to the sport and honestly football would be better if more people were like him; unafraid to be honest.
But I think for the best possible ending to this piece, I’ve got to go back to Van Gaal’s bank of quotes one last time from during his spell at United.
“I hope that all the people who work with me remember me as a human being. It is special here at Carrington, but I think it was the same for me in Munich and Barcelona. Whether it is like that, I don’t know, but I like people.
“When you give your fellow employees attention for what they are doing for us, it makes a difference. I am empathetic to the job and I want to be a human being where I work. Sometimes players are very fed up with my communication, but that’s what I do and they know how I think. But they know I am very transparent.”
Thanks for everything Louis and here’s to you for being one of the most memorable ‘human beings’ football has ever seen.