After a disastrous season for the club, incoming manager Louis van Gaal has promised to make us great again next season. The Netherlands boss is expected to be announced as United's new manager this week on a £7 million-a-season deal and has already identified taking the club back to the top of English football as one of his most pressing priorities. Van Gaal is also confident the players will buy into his attacking philosophy and confirmed he will be utilizing a 4-3-3 formation at Old Trafford next season. The Daily Star quoted him as saying: "I think it's my philosophy because it binds players with my training.
"In my career, I have had a lot of players who are fascinated by that philosophy. They find it nice to take part in it because it's attacking, technical and tactical. They can show their qualities more than ever. You have to play as a team and not as individuals. That's why I'm always going back to the vision, then the team, and then which players fit in my system, a 4-3-3, because I'm always playing that."
Meanwhile, with Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic both leaving the club this summer, van Gaal has dropped a heavy hint that the legendary Ryan Giggs will stay on as his No.2. It was widely expected that Patrick Kluivert would be offered that role, though van Gaal pointed out that he traditionally prefers to keep an existing member of the coaching staff whenever he starts a new job.
"When I go to a new club, I always want to keep one coach from the existing staff and that person at Bayern was Herman Kerland, who is still working under Pep Guardiola. I wanted to know who was coming through the youth system - and he is the man who said to me 'Muller, Badstuber and Alaba. These are the players.' So I let them train with the first team, I observed them - and then I decided where they were going to play."
In other news, it would appear as though we have missed out on signing Borussia Dortmund's attacking midfielder Marco Reus this summer. The 24-year-old has indicated he is happy to stay in Germany. Reus said: "It's safe to say I will be playing for Borussia Dortmund also in the 2014/2015 season."