11 Aug 2012

'I spoke with LFC' - Ajax/Barca legend admits he wanted Anfield move...

Newly-appointed Netherlands manager Louis Van Gaal has admitted for the first time that he met with Liverpool to discuss succeeding Kenny Dalglish as the manager at Anfield

In his first press conference as manager of the national team, Van Gaal - one of those rare managers who has won the league title at four different clubs - revealed:

"I had a lot of chances to sign with other clubs, but I've only spoken with Liverpool about a job.

"Only Liverpool came with a plan that I liked, because I've never worked in the Premier League and I always wanted to become champion in England."


It sounds as if Van Gaal wanted the manager's job rather than Sporting/Technical Director, which is fair enough considering the man's fantastic record of success.

On one level, Van Gaal would've been perfect for Liverpool:

* Peerless experience in the game.
* Strong character and personality.
* Attacking football philosophy.
* Great at bringing through young players.
* Vast experience of dealing with big egos.
* Would command instant respect from players.
* Capable of attracting big names.
* Wouldn't tolerate shirkers/underperformers.
* Would striker fear into the current squad (in a good way)
* track record of constant success.

At the time, I argued in favour of the Dutchman's appointment as team manager, and although I'm delighted with Brendan Rodgers, Van Gaal would've been a good alternate choice.



For the record, I chose Rodgers.

Jaimie Kanwar


34 comments:

  1. Without a doubt spoilt either way.
    Older manager with bags of winning mentality would have given us instant gratification; new generation mentality but nothing wrong with it.
    Younger manager gives us a fresh start with hope for the presentable medium and long term. Very exciting philosophy comes with him, and he has the energy of youth on his side.
    A bit like choosing between a lamborghini and a Ferrari.
    Although without doubt we're going to hear the haters talk about choosing between a Ferrari and a ford!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rapt Brendon was appointed manager . Handles himself and the media very well. Van Gaal by all reports, despite his managerial record is a lunatic. Would have caused more problems than what he would have fixed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rodgers can hardly qualify as a Ferrari after 1 season in the Prem and having won nothing in his career.  Let's be realistic.

    But Van Gaal is a madman so would have taken the risk on Rodgers potential before him, probably.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What's the story with Van Gaal's fragile psychology?

    ReplyDelete
  5. We know that FSG's first offer to BR was to work under a Director of Football and he turned it down, so they changed their plans to fit BRs preferred working conditions.

    Sounds to me that DOF candidate was Van Gaal.

    He was way too old to be appointed manager.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We already had two foreign managers who helped move Liverpool two steps forward and four steps backwards by the end of five years each. They also had good backing of finance. But wasted their chances with many poor buys. Perhaps Rafa bought a few good ones but the rest were really poor. The team was also straddled with injured players who came in with high salary. Now it is the Brandon Rodgers era and although without much money, the two players he has brought in so far are quality. The preseason games and the Europa games have given me more confidence and hope than I did have when Dalglish brought the five players Doni, Carroll, Adam, Henderson and Downing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't get it? Why do we need these types of debates/polls? Surely this is an attempt to undermine our new manager?

    We've got Rodgers! get fully behind the new manager and lets stop with the hypothetical rubbish! jeez!

     

    ReplyDelete
  8. Would have been happy with his appointment, however I would rather see the club create its own legend Like Shankly on through to Benitez!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would be careful to criticize Rafa... He did a whole lot for the club and I think that his tenure ending was largely due to meddling and greedy owners at the time (to think those bastards almost destroyed the club)... I will always love Rafa, great manager, just didn't have the killer instinct, but that team he had set up was the best team we've had in DECADES! (2009)


    As for KD... I fully believe that KD built the foundation for BR to succeed, and we have to be thankful to him for his commitment and selflessness. That man is LFC through and through, brought us silverware and made it feel like Liverpool again- He gave the club it's soul back. I think we'll also see (and are seeing) a quick transition to BR's philosophy and style, all thanks to the work done by KD.

    BR will owe a lot to KD if he finds success this season or next! 

    KD true Anfield Legend!!!! Forever grateful!ynwa 

    ReplyDelete
  10. Erm, you honestly think someone asking on a web blog opinions on who people would have preferred is undermining our current manager? Go put your tinfoil hat back on x

    ReplyDelete
  11. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about with regard to foreign managers and LFC. Separate managerial reigns from ownership ones and you will get more clarity. Houllier and Rafa put us back in the European map with respect and even won trophies there with discernible development after their full first season in charge with respected trophies on the way. Dalglish, Hodgson and before then Souness unquestionably set us back more in one full season than Rafa or Houllier ever did. Ever. Dalglish and Souness were comparatively bigger spenders at their time in their first year of the Prem than Houllier and Rafa also. Rafa came in at at time when the club couldn't really afford to pay top dollar for a lot of talent without buying players adding value and then selling them on at a profit and he did very well under the circumstances. Houllier got value in acquisitions like Hyppia, Henchoz, Hamman, Litmanen and Smicer. Dalglish would have looked at players with half their talent and pay double as long as they were British.

    BR is far more sensible than Dalglish and I think he's done very well in the transfer window so far. It is his continental exposure which gives him his potential and prowess - very much like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.

    ReplyDelete
  12. couldn't agree more, seems daft having the poll, brandon is our manager, now lets all get behind him and stop all the what if's!

    ReplyDelete
  13. gerrard H. and rafa B. where fantastic managers for liverpool,, you seem to look for negatives in there signings,,not every signing works out,, look at lucas, i bet u was calling for his head but he is now 1 of the best midfielders in the prem. liverpool have had some great signing with these 2 managers.. alonso,smicer, berger, hyypia,mascerano,aurelio,murphy, and on and on, oh and djimi traore..smile and appreciate the great players and don't look to find the bad within the signings.  YNWA  JFT96

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes, but where was Ferrari before they built up a reputation?
    They were still called Ferrari and they still made a fantastic first car!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Rodgers more closer to parent company Fiat, than Ferrari at the moment. Very early days, even though I liked his appointment in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Whereas British managers like KK the II and Hodgson moved the club four steps forwards(!)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Aye, its a conspiracy(!)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Attempt to undermine the manager? Stop talking nonsense. I'm always interested in what fans think about stuff, hence the regular polls. And as I'm sure regular readers will confirm, I've been nothing but positive about Rodgers since he signed, and I even state IN THE ARTICLE that I prefer Rodgers.

    ReplyDelete
  19. any new manager needs time but i feel the board will not give we have had 3 managers in as many years if BRs team do not gel straight away we will be looking for a new manager so might still end up with van gaal The board expects instant results but crib about spending money its not a love of the club its a love of money they have ,i hope that BR is given more time than 2 previous but dont hold your breath nobody wins anything first time even city spending it has took them a good while to win anything, except mouriniho besides its very rarely done 

    ReplyDelete
  20. No, I believe you are wrong, the board wants improvement and sustained success, if we finished 8th this season but were only 5 points off the top 4, then that would be a huge improvement on last season, that being said, we need to qualify for at least the Euros as a realistic first season objective, then build on that and go for CL places in the seasons after that

    ReplyDelete
  21. Van Gaal would have been a great choice, but am proper made up with Rogers can just feel hes gonna do well, YNWA.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yes, good analogy

    ReplyDelete
  23. But the DNA is still present

    ReplyDelete
  24. You say You'r happy Jamie with the choice

    Im counting the days until you start ripping into Rodgers
    In the same way you've done so many times before With the last managers

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hang on a minute you just replaced fiat for ford!
    And I was in such a hurry I didn't read it properly!
    Anyhow fiat make ferraris and I'll still say BR is a prototype Ferrari; great foundation, grat principles, fantastic PR, excellent at disarming and befriending the press thus far and knows who he is and what he is supposed to be doing.
    For me I stand by what I said in my first post and have full faith he will achieve the standards required.
    Very excited.

    ReplyDelete
  26. wait till october before you star to shine brendan's helmet and remember kenny was told to buy brittish and this time last year kenny was amazing and 3 wembley visits later he is not fit to sit in the stands the only liverpool manager to win the prem(with blackburn)

    ReplyDelete
  27. I have no doubt we made the right decision when we appointed Brendan as manager. FSG brought us back from the brink, and anyone wanting an idea of just how bad it could have got then they need to take a look at Rangers and where they are now to where they were a year ago, that could so easily have been us. We will also be for ever indebted to Kenny for pulling our fat out of the fire, did he damage the club sadly yes but we must also remember where we were when Kenny took over so we should also be greatful to him as well.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Van Gaal wanted to manage in the premiership ok but BR wanted to manage Liverpool..thats the difference.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Van Gaal was a man I backed from early on. A nutter by all accounts but then again, he might have headbutted Fergie.

    Makes players play football the right way.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Not sure on his press skills so far, as its very early days and he wasn't great with the Carroll thing. I thought he did a very poor job initially with the PR around the Carroll thing initially. He told it too straight (which isn't always a good thing to do with public comments, even if it is good in some ways), which gave the media lots to chew on over Carroll, than he had to try and correct the situation but damage was done already. Would like to know the full story with the Swansea agreement over players, before jumping on the 'great principles' bandwagon. Like I said earlier, very early days to get all lovey dovey over him and hyping him up. He has proven bugger all but of course, he deserves a chance to prove himself, before being hyped up or written off.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I would respectfully suggest otherwise;
    Relatively speaking, and taking into consideration the faux pas of our previous managers, he's done rather well.
    The real reasons behind some of the examples you suggest could be different to how you explain them as 'mistakes'. On the other hand they could be exactly that, mistakes, which I'm sure he will iron out. Either way we won't know until we get a further measure of the guy and his modus operandi of getting the best out of his players.
    A Carroll was lazy, lost and handed everything on a silver platter by KD; he also looked like he was missing Newcastle like a cowboy missing a woman while he's getting off with one of his cattle in the wilderness.
    Anyhow, maybe he needed a kick up the arse, I certainly saw A Carroll with a renewed enthusiastic almost child-like frollick in his step when he was warming up against Gomel, he looked at last like he was only thinking LFC And Anfield, he looked like he was present; point made I wonder?
    As far as principles are concerned, considering that football is a tribal game, and considering the flack and abuse that Hodgson got at licking Alex's arse, (rightly in my opinion), then how can you blame BR for putting the interests of LFC first and 'using' the agreements in place (which we are not privy to) as well as loopholes to get players he feels he needs?
    I also didn't realise you wanted a self- sacrificial Spartacus as our new manager!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I haven't said what kind of manager I want him to be and haven't said what kind of manager he is as its bloody early days, I am merely criticising your lovey dovey definition of the manager you think Rodgers is, which is based on very little to date, i.e., early days to get so typically rose-tinted. Rather nauseating and cringing when fans put him up on a pedestal when he has done bugger all. That is my point. Its too early to sing about him like you do. One minute your lauding him as a man of great principles, than the next making excuses for him when its possible he has illustrated not-so-great ones, which is just nauseating and illustrates the typical moving of goal posts for a fan to back a man they have on a pedestal, despite doing very little to earn it. I'll leave it there, as I've made point. Cheerio.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I always suggest Alka seltzer or smelling salts for nausea.

    Ps. I know you're very learned from your plethora of posts but in your single mindedness just remember this is a debate, not an emotional discharge between lovers.
    My posts are calm opinions, not idol worshipping, sheep-like rants.
    Please forgive my optimism if you can make the step down from your mighty horse

    Pps. Hope to debate with you soon;-)

    ReplyDelete