Louis van Gaal has hit out at Manchester United’s treatment of him in an explosive interview this week.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the Dutchman has ridiculed his former employer for the manner in which they parted ways with him last May.
Two days after the Red Devils lifted the FA Cup, Van Gaal was dismissed by United and was ultimately replaced by Jose Mourinho.
Van Gaal has claimed that his wife had predicted his unceremonious sacking while he couldn’t have imagined that any football club would treat a manager so poorly.
“United put my head in a noose and I was publicly placed on the gallows,” the 66-year-old said.
“The pressure was enormous with my head in the noose and they went right behind my back.
“I think it was all orchestrated like a film and it was done very much behind my back right from January.
“My wife, Truus, told me that the attitude of the board had changed. Women have this intuition. They smell it.
“I denied it, even to my wife, because between me as a manager and the chief executive Ed Woodward, everything was running as normal.”
Van Gaal was put under immense pressure when ex-United players like Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs began criticising the style of football that was on show at Old Trafford.
And after feeling betrayed by United’s higher-ups in their plan to pursue Mourinho as his successor, Van Gaal felt it necessary to demand every single penny of the compensation package which was owed to him and his coaching staff.
United were reportedly forced to shell out £8.4 million in total after sacking the former Netherlands coach in May 2016.
“Suddenly former players started to yap in the media that we were playing boring football and Mourinho’s sacking made it very attractive for everyone to keep bashing me,” he continued.
“I do understand that choice of United to get Mourinho.
“I never wanted more than two years anyway. Man United wanted three years. Suddenly, Mourinho was out after one-and-a-half years of my contract and I knew United wanted him one day.
“They told me only after it was leaked out and it was the biggest disappointment of my life.
“United did not discuss this with me. If they had come to me with the Mourinho plan then I could have said ‘okay, let’s give it everything for the last six months, complete commitment to each other and the team and then Jose Mourinho can take over.’
“They could have saved the last year of my salary by doing that but after what happened I made them pay every penny.”
