Little over a week into Louis van Gaal’s reign as Manchester United manager and, already, the change in mood around the club is palpable. Sir Alex Ferguson, for all the boot-kicking, hair-drying, autocratic fury for which he was so famous, also knew how to have fun. He had a glint in his eye and, when calm and relaxed, could fill a room of hardened hacks with laughter. Indeed, in some if his more revealing interviews and fly-on-the-wall documentaries his humour could be surprisingly infectious. Yes, he could be fierce, but there is no way so many of his former players would speak so affectionately of him had he not known the value of fun. The fact that, for the most part, Ferguson’s players enjoyed themselves, was clear to see on the pitch, during his twenty-seven year reign. His teams, at their best, played with freedom and verve, with a sense of absolute confidence, bordering on arrogance, and with smiles on their faces. Contrast that with the Manchester United of last season, with the hapless David Moyes at the helm, and the team had become unrecognisable from the previous term. They played without rhythm, a staccato, fear-filled reflection of their manager’s state of mind. The body language was depressing, the football awful. Talk of long training sessions focusing on dry defensive drills was rife, a far cry from what the players had been used to. Old Trafford became a deeply troubled, unhappy place under Moyes. Indeed, it took his sacking, and Ryan Giggs’ brief spell in charge, to restore some joy to the place. Still, even then, with the champions of the previous year finishing in a lowly seventh place in the Premier League, shorn of European football and the fear-factor they had spent the previous two decades building, uncertainty and a niggling sense that United’s era of success could genuinely be coming to a bitter, humiliating end, remained. A few months on and United fans are already beginning to regain their swagger. Such is the effect of Louis van Gaal. There is a sense of excitement and expectancy that few thought they would be experiencing so soon after last season’s debacle. This is not because of Thursday morning’s 7-0 victory over LA Galaxy as part of Manchester United’s pre-season US tour, though that certainly helped. It is because of, as Ryan Giggs put it, Van Gaal’s ‘aura.’ The joy of Ferguson’s regime already appears to have been restored, mixed with a healthy and vital sense of respect. Players are training and playing with smiles on their faces and talking of their new manager’s high, demanding standards. Videos and photographs of the Dutchman excitedly celebrating goals scored in training are a thrilling sight for sore eyes for supporters. Talk of more training with the ball than without are music to their ears. Most United fans are still hoping for, and expecting, further new signings to add to a squad that has lost numerous vastly experienced players since the season ended. Rumours abound of various high-profile targets. Whether any of these come to fruition remains to be seen but, in marked contrast to Moyes’ absurd first summer at the club, fans are confident that the lure of Louis van Gaal, and the vision he would set out to anyone he wished to acquire, will be enough to make things happen. Not only that, fans are also excited to see the galvanising effect the former Netherlands coach may have on the current crop. His reputation for improving players and giving opportunities to youth is legendary. There are certainly a great many in a squad that failed so abysmally, last season, who will need to show rapid signs of such improvement if they are to have any future at the club. Still, it is refreshing for the fans to be excited again. Having spent the ten months of the Moyes-era first deeply sceptical, then increasingly concerned and, eventually, genuinely depressed, each photograph or video of smiling, relaxed players having fun, or a confident, self-assured Van Gaal joking with journalists or hugging one of his players, is gulped down like a revitalising tonic, every mouthful washing away some more of the stain of the last brutally unhappy campaign. Louis van Gaal may only have been at the club for little over a week but, already, he has restored a crucial ingredient in any successful team. Namely, fun.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 11:00:13 +0000
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