Louis van Gaal could have been managing at the World Cup this summer.
The Dutchman was offered a route back into management with Belgium. Working with players like Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku as well as the undeniable appeal of potentially managing at another World Cup were ultimately secondary concerns for van Gaal, though.
Instead, the 66-year-old remains intent on letting Manchester United know just how he bitter he is after his acrimonious dismissal as their manager 18 months ago. Van Gaal was relieved of his duties and swiftly replaced by Jose Mourinho immediately after guiding United to FA Cup success.
While he was understandably disaffected at the nature of his departure from Old Trafford, it seems questionable to forgo the chance to succeed Marc Wilmots as Belgium manager as a kind of punishment to United, who were still paying off the final year of his three-year contract.
“It would have been really great if I had become Belgium national coach, but I was so resentful and vindictive that I let that job go by,” Van Gaal told De Volkskrant.
Louis van Gaal has revealed he made Man Utd continue paying up his contract by turning down the Belgium job as an act of "revenge". pic.twitter.com/QakmPJFXX2
— Coral (@Coral) January 15, 2018
At least van Gaal now acknowledges that his singular focus on revenge was ‘stupid.’
“It was stupid, really, because the sporting value should always come in the first place. That should have been the most important thing. But that’s how I looked at things. It was not about money. It was all about the act of revenge.
“I went for my instinct, not the rational. I just have to live with that. I’ve been a really successful manager, so I don’t want to slag the world of football down. I have had a lot of good times.
“The way Manchester United have treated me was terrible. They have been mean and low. In contrast, the way president [Joesp Lluis] Nunez of Barcelona treated me was fantastic.
“That proves that the world of football is not full of false people. There are also straight and warm people among those people.”
Of course, he does have a point. Just like with David Moyes’ sacking in April 2014, van Gaal’s dismissal was messy and did not reflect well on the United hierarchy. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss was right to feel aggrieved at the underhanded way in which United had clearly lined up Mourinho as their new manager.
Van Gaal doesn’t seem exclusively resentful towards football, just United. The Dutchman can always look back on a successful career in football management, which produced seven league titles in three different countries and a Champions League (with Ajax in 1995). He also led his home nation to third place in the 2014 World Cup, which went a long way in drawing United to him in the first place.
Still, though, it’s remarkable to think that a man of his stature and experience, someone who knows as well as anyone the cruel, cut-throat nature of football, would harbour such ill-will towards United that he would turn down a lucrative position on the international stage just to spite his former employers.
