“They have – or they had – great expectations of me, and I can not fulfill them, so I am very frustrated because of that”, said Van Gaal.
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United slumped to a 1-0 loss to Southampton at Old Trafford on 23 January, thereby increasing pressure on current boss Louis van Gaal.
Gill declined to comment on the Mourinho report but did say he does not believe Van Gaal is finding the United job more hard than he imagined.
United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has reportedly spoken to a number of the club’s players about their feelings towards Van Gaal’s methods, and their responses have been far from convincing.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the club’s most successful manager who is now a director, has no knowledge of Woodward’s thinking regarding Van Gaal.
Van Gaal spoke of his frustrations following the Southampton match, in which he was booed off the pitch after his team were defeated 1-0. United, going back to the 50s under Matt Busby, have had that – and I started supporting when we had George Best. However, should United lose in the FA cup on Friday, the two may come to an agreement that the manager should walk away. “We want attractive football and I’m sure we will try to do that going forward”.
Having returned to the Netherlands on Sunday for a short holiday, the Dutchman will hold fresh talks with Woodward on Tuesday when he is expected to return for first team training.
Amid intense speculation about his future, a Manchester United club source denied reports that the 64-year-old former Dutch national boss had offered his resignation on Saturday.
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The message understood to be coming from the board early on during that run of results was one of full support for Van Gaal, but it will be interesting to see how things develop from here. Saturday was the seventh time they have failed to score at Old Trafford this year.
