Van Gaal gets the signal to axe fast
MANCHESTER UNITED’S players and their families gathered at Carrington yesterday for their children’s fun day knowing the party is almost over. For a number of the squad, tomorrow’s match against Hull City will be their last appearance at Old Trafford. For others, that moment has already passed. Hours later, Louis van Gaal is set to be confirmed as manager and life will never be quite the same again. If there is one beneficiary beyond Wearside from United’s 1-0 home defeat to Sunderland, it’s Van Gaal. The last thing the Dutchman needed was to come in on the back of four straight wins under interim boss Ryan Giggs and a clamour for the Old Trafford icon to be appointed. Instead, after Giggs’s opening 4-0 win over Norwich, Saturday’s display was as bad as anything we have witnessed this season with United showing a chronic lack of pace and ingenuity. Ashley Young and Nani were wretched, Javier Hernandez once again failed to seize his chance in the absence through injury of Wayne Rooney, while Rio Ferdinand and Darren Fletcher looked well past their best. Afterwards Giggs wore a puzzled look and gave the vague answers people came to expect from David Moyes. None of them are safe from the Van Gaal revolution as he prepares to take a £150million wrecking ball to the empire that Sir Alex Ferguson built. Patrice Evra summed it up, saying: ‘Sir Alex Ferguson was the heart of Manchester United. You cannot replace him so quickly and we knew it would be difficult, but not this difficult. ‘This year everyone has failed.’