Van Gaal was very clear on who he felt was to blame for his Man Utd sacking
Louis van Gaal blames "evil genius" Ed Woodward for his Manchester United sacking, with the Dutchman ruthlessly axed just two days after winning the FA Cup.
Van Gaal took over at United in 2014 following the World Cup in Brazil, where he guided the Netherlands to a third-place finish. Following his appointment, he claimed he had inherited a "broken" squad which had finished seventh the season before with David Moyes lasting less than a year in charge.
As a result, he immediately splashed the cash in the transfer market with the likes of Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind all making the move to Old Trafford. However, Van Gaal suffered a 2-1 defeat to Swansea in his first Premier League game in charge and saw his side thrashed 4-0 by League One side MK Dons in the League Cup.
It took five games for United to record their first win under the new manager, but they were able to find some form as the season wore on and secure a top-four finish. With United returning to the Champions League, they once again invested heavily ahead of Van Gaal's second season in charge.
The likes of Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Anthony Martial and Morgan Schneiderlin were among the big recruits, while United also cut their losses on Di Maria after a nightmare season. The winger left to join PSG, with his wife Jorgelina Cardoso later branding Manchester a "s***hole" and admitting the player only joined United for the money.
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Things got off to a promising start when Van Gaal accidentally called Chris Smalling "Mike" while the pair were sat next to each other at a pre-season press conference. And there were plenty more memorable moments to come as the pressure ramped up on Van Gaal during the season.
United's Champions League campaign quickly came to an end in the group stages after defeats to PSV Eindhoven and Wolfsburg saw them drop into the Europa League, while any hopes of a title challenge were dashed after they failed to win a single game in December.
That poor run of form led to intense speculation about Van Gaal's future and the Dutchman gave a memorably brief press conference ahead of a game against Stoke where he walked out after less than five minutes, telling journalists: "I wish you a merry Christmas and maybe also a happy new year when I see you. Enjoy the wine and a mince pie. Goodbye."
Angel di Maria proved to be a disaster at Man United (Getty Images)Championship side Middlesbrough had already knocked them out of the League Cup in October and United then suffered an embarrassing 2-1 loss to Midtjylland in the first leg of their Europa League knockout tie in February. Ahead of the second leg, Van Gaal bizarrely said he wanted his players to "horny".
"We have to show desire, that is a very good word, hunger, and a lot of times I use the word horny to my players," Van Gaal said. United went on to thrash Midtjylland 5-1, with an 18-year-old Marcus Rashford scoring a brace on his debut after Martial suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up.
However, the Red Devils were then eliminated in the next round, losing 3-1 on aggregate to rivals Liverpool. As United continued to struggle on the pitch, speculation ramped up concerning Jose Mourinho potentially replacing Van Gaal following his departure from Chelsea earlier in the season.
It was speculation Van Gaal did not take kindly at the time, but Mourinho was indeed appointed as United's next manager just four days after they axed his predecessor. The decision was made after Van Gaal lost the dressing room and missed out on a top-four finish, although Woodward waited until after the FA Cup final to pull the trigger.
Van Gaal was sacked just two days after winning the FA Cup (Matthew Peters/Getty Images)United did end up going on to lift the trophy, beating Crystal Palace 2-1 in a game largely remembered for Alan Pardew's dancing after Jason Puncheon gave Palace the lead. Van Gaal was left "angry" at the way he was sacked and blamed Woodward for his departure.
In an appearance on the Een-tweetje met Yves podcast, Van Gaal said: "I blame Ed Woodward, my CEO at Manchester United, much more than Mourinho. In my view, Woodward is the evil genius."
Following his Old Trafford departure, Van Gaal spent five years away from management before returning to take charge of the Netherlands for a third time after they crashed out of Euro 2020 in the last 16 and Frank de Boer quit. He remained in charge until the Qatar World Cup, where the Netherlands were knocked out on penalties in the quarter-finals, losing to eventual winners Argentina.
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The 72-year-old is now retired and, while his tenure at United was nowhere near as successful as his stints with Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he certainly provided plenty of memorable moments.
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