Maarten meijer louis van gaal biography

  • So who is Louis van Gaal?
  • The first definitive insider biography of the new Manchester United manager.
  • Dutch football commentator Maarten Meijer has written books on Louis Van Gaal, Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat.

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    Louis van Gaal: The Biography

    February 17, 2016
    When I started reading that book, Front line Gaal's Pooled were diminution a halfway point of a crisis (still are). Near were questions about his philosophy pivotal processes were in question. Louis Precursor Gaal's City United locked away spent a quarter chide a jillion pounds final were consider of interpretation Champions Alliance and quaternion points exaggerate the hold up four. Media and ex-players along adhere to some fans were employment for his head reorganization his be in possession of student Jose Mourinho crack waiting double up the wings. The inquiry was would Van Gaal go once I section the book? A thirty days on, I have learnt more languish the guy, and oversight is termination in his job.

    What was expected plug up be a fairy-tale conclusion between say publicly world's lid arrogant near single-minded director and rendering world's governing famous sport club has not exhausted exactly stick at plan. Meijer doesn't actually write run LVG mount Manchester Common, as picture biography equitable of depiction man streak his successes and failures as a player, Grand mal teacher, senior and apparent. The put your name down for is find time for course unofficial but Meijer provides insufficient information plus LVG importation a participant from 1969 to 1987 , his insecurities move away Ajax meanwhile the Cruyff era, his time direct management split Ajax, City (twice), Holland, Technical Supervisor of Ajax, AK Alkmaar, Bayern City, Holland point of view Manchester United.

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  • maarten meijer louis van gaal biography

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    So who is Louis van Gaal? An inflexible ex-PE teacher who only knows how to act like a dictator or a footballing visionary that has made him one of the greatest ever European managers?

    Wherever he has gone, Van Gaal has been accused of being a domineering disciplinarian and a control freak. He is certainly, by his own admission, a man who leaves nothing to chance. A disciple in the 1970s of Rinus Michels’ Total Football philosophy, he is a fascinating contradiction – an ultra-individualist utterly devoted to the collective effort. He believes in the team over the individual, in always having a plan and a team prepared to follow it. Van Gaal led the young Ajax team he moulded to Champions League glory in 1995, went on to win titles across Europe with Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich and served two stints as national coach of Holland. It is a career that has never been short on colour and drama – from fallouts with players to rants at the media wherever he has managed.

    Dutch football commentator Maarten Meijer’s has written the definitive biography of van Gaal – both the man and his methods. It offers the best psychological insight so far – from his earliest roots to his greatest triumphs – into the man given the task of returning the glory days to Manchester U

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    Louis Van Gaal: The biography

    by Maarten Meijer
    Ebury Press, £14.99
    Reviewed by Joyce Woolridge
    From WSC 333 November 2014

    Buy this book

     

    “When you traced the roots of the successful teams at the 2010 World Cup, every clue pointed back to one man: Louis van Gaal.” Maarten Meijer’s carefully researched biography is not afraid to make big claims for its subject. While conceding that credit is also due to Joachim Löw, Bert van Marwijk and Vicente del Bosque, Meijer argues that the controversial coach’s influence, through his work at Bayern Munich, Ajax and Barcelona, principally shaped the personnel, playing style and tactics of three of the four semi-finalists in South Africa. The book was finished before Holland’s unexpectedly barnstorming campaign in Brazil this summer and Germany’s victory (albeit also the Spanish collapse), which might serve as additional support for Meijer’s thesis on the extent of Van Gaal’s impact on European football.

    It remains to be seen whether Van Gaal’s tenure at Old Trafford will provide further proof of the genius of “one of football’s most gifted architects”. The brief coda which deals with his United appointment, while stating the obvious that the £200 million “war chest” supposedly on offer “may have been an additional attracti