Louis van Gaal’s wife has revealed the Dutch manager cried after his brutal sacking by Manchester United back in 2016.
The Dutchman had just led the Red Devils to the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace in the final before he was dismissed two days later following months of speculation over his future at the club. He had reportedly been informed that he would be let go just hours after the triumph at Wembley.
His wife Truus revealed in the Amazon Prime documentary ‘Van Gaal’ that she sensed her husband would get the sack, after United legends such as Sir Alex Ferguson stopped greeting them as Ed Woodward plotted the Dutchman’s departure.
Louis van Gaal’s wife has revealed that he cried after being sacked by Manchester United
His dismissal came just two days after he guided Manchester United to glory in the FA Cup
Truus van Gaal (left) sensed that her husband was going to be sacked by the Red Devils in 2016
‘I knew Louis would be fired by Manchester United. I felt it,’ she says in the documentary.
‘We had a small boardroom there and it was always fun with the old Manchester legends, Ferguson, Bobby Charlton. We had a table there with good food and drinks.
‘Suddenly, they stopped greeting us, just waved from afar. Something was wrong. It was female intuition.
‘Then when the man (Woodward) denies it, Louis accepts it. I said, ‘Louis, you’re going to be fired. Get wise to it.’ And I slammed the door of the apartment shut.
‘After the FA Cup final, Louis said, ‘Well, we did it!’ I said, ‘Louis, they say you’ve been fired.’
‘He got so angry! ‘Why did you have to spoil my party? Stop all this aggressive nonsense!’
Truus van Gaal said United legends like Sir Alex Ferguson had stopped greeting them
There was months of speculation that Ed Woodward (right) was plotting to fire the Dutchman
‘Later, he said, “Hi, it’s Louis. You can come home, you were right”. His voice sounded broken, so I said, “Alright, I’m on my way”. When I came home I could see he’d been crying. I hugged him. I had tears in my eyes too.’
In the film, Van Gaal holds a video call with Wayne Rooney, who recalls Truus was ‘angry’ in the aftermath of the Cup final.
Rooney himself was annoyed with Van Gaal’s departure from Old Trafford as he told his former boss: ‘I was very disappointed because I felt that everything was moving in the right direction. I felt if you had one more year we would have been successful.’
Wayne Rooney spoke to Van Gaal in the Amazon Prime documentary and the former Manchester United captain said he was ‘disappointed’ at the time the Dutchman got sacked
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Van Gaal’s sacking came on the back of a season in which they failed to qualify for the Champions League and scored a measly 49 Premier League goals on their way to finishing fifth.
The Dutchman spent £284million at the club on the likes of Angel Di Maria, Anthony Martial and Radamel Falcao.
Van Gaal though complained to Rooney after they didn’t ‘buy the players he wanted’ with moves for the likes of Sadio Mane, Sergio Ramos, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski failing to materialise.
He told the D.C. United manager: ‘It’s unbelievable. I was at the richest club in the world and I could not buy the players I wanted.
‘Manchester was my most difficult period. I came in as a manager and everything was disappointing. Most of the players in the squad were over 30. It was my job to sort it out. Rooney was also nearing 30.’
Van Gaal was replaced in the United hotseat by Jose Mourinho, with the Portuguese’s appointment announced three days after the Dutchman was sacked.