Louis van Gaal is a major figure in the career of the current priority Manchester United defensive target.
For Manchester United, one of the managers who arguably deserved better due to the fact he had to work with the Glazers is Louis van Gaal.
The Dutchman won an FA Cup during his time at Old Trafford, but due to being sacked immediately afterwards, he has always held a slight grudge.
Now though, Ineos are targeting a player that he knows very well and he actually played a key role in helping return to form at one point when he was his national team boss.
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Louis van Gaal helped to revive Matthijs de Ligt’s career
For Matthijs de Ligt, his career hasn’t panned out to be quite as incredible as his breakthrough ability at Ajax suggested. To many, he was destined to become the world’s best defender and while he is very good, he hasn’t fulfilled that potential just yet.
After a tricky period at Juventus however, he managed to resurrect his career and this is something former United boss Louis van Gaal both complimented and helped with.
In 2021, Van Gaal was speaking in a press conference, as quoted by Dutch outlet, Voetbal Primeur and in this he praised De Ligt for what was then a real resurgence in form.
“He has risen from the darkness again, I’ve seen his last games and then you really see progress. I’m very happy with that.
“Matthijs de Ligt is coming back from the valley.”
De Ligt has since then been pretty good, moving to Bayern Munich helped and after a strong campaign for the German side, there is plenty of surprise that he is allowed to depart with fans even campaigning against his exit.
So with that in mind, Ten Hag could be the man to complete De Ligt’s revival.
Ineos will be hoping De Ligt doesn’t also speak with Van Gaal before United move
Things are going increasingly smoothly in United’s efforts to sign De Ligt this summer for around £33.9m, almost too smoothly for what we are used to.
Where there could be a hiccup is if De Ligt actually discusses this potential move with Van Gaal before making it as he did regarding Bayern Munich.
Before moving to Bayern, Van Gaal told De Ligt that he’d ‘fall in love’ with the club – although that didn’t pan out to be truthful as he is now looking set to exit two years later.
This is because, in the past, Van Gaal has swayed players away from making a move to Old Trafford, such as with Jurrien Timber who he urged to reject United during Ten Hag’s first summer in charge.