Van Gaal is a highly respected manager, but his relationship with his players has occasionally soured due to his inflexibility. The most notable example was his very public spat with Brazilian superstar Rivaldo during his first tenure at Barcelona from 1997-2000. Having won the World Player Of The Year award in 1999 and finished as Barcelona's second top goalscorer, Rivaldo requested he be moved from the left wing to his preferred position in the centre for the following season. Van Gaal refused and parked him on the bench and the transfer list. Van Gaal has also had confrontations with Dutch legends Ronald Koeman, Johann Cruyff and Italian striker Luca Toni, in front of whom he literally dropped his trousers to prove he had the 'cojones' to leave the striker out of his team. Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't exactly shy when it came to confronting his players either, with Paul Ince, Jaap Stam, David Beckham and Roy Keane among the biggest names with whom he clashed during his time at United. Sir Alex was manager at Old Trafford for over a quarter of a century though and had earnt the right to demand players fall into line with his way of doing things at a club he had almost single-handedly raised into the dominant force in English football. Van Gaal has achieved many things during his career, but is someone who describes himself as 'arrogant, dominant, honest', qualities which do not always sit well with players who have been at a big club longer than the manager. On the one hand, his authority could be instrumental in taking control of a dressing room which never seemed to accept the humble David Moyes' way of doing things. On the other hand, van Gaal could have an even worse situation on his hands if his notorious ego riles a group of players who have been together for a long time.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
