Friday, February fourteenth, the UN says at least 22 people have been killed in a village in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Over half of those killed were children. No one has claimed responsibility for Friday’s incident but the opposition parties blame the killing on the government.
Inside story of the Manchester United dressing room
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Louis van Gaal’s two-year reign at Manchester United has come to an end after the Dutchman lost the respect of the dressing-room with eccentric management that extended to brutal video dissection of players’ performances, critical emails to squad members and the imposition of "straitjacket" football on the team.
Senior players have also grown exasperated by the "special treatment" afforded to German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has made just four appearances since suffering a knee injury against Sheffield United in the FA Cup in January.
Van
Gaal, who led United to the FA Cup glory with Saturday’s 2-1 Wembley victory
against Crystal Palace, is set to be replaced by Jose Mourinho
at Old Trafford
after failing to secure Champions League qualification this season.
But The
Independent has been made aware that such has been the breakdown of the
relationship between Van Gaal and his players this season, the 64-year-old is
unlikely to have survived in charge for the final year of his three-year
contract – even if a top four finish had been achieved.
From
the first week of Van Gaal’s spell in charge, when he succeeded the sacked David Moyes
after guiding Holland to the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup, United’s senior
players have struggled to adapt to the rigid demands imposed by the former
Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach.
Having
inherited United’s summer tour of the United States from Moyes, Van Gaal was so
angered by the arrangements in place – the Beverly Hills location of the team’s
Los Angeles hotel in relation to the training camp and venue for the game
against LA Galaxy – that a budget Holiday Inn was hired for the players to
sleep close to the training ground in between morning and afternoon sessions.
One
source close to the players claims that Van Gaal’s strict regime of
"training at 8.30, sent to rooms for a couple hours rest, training after
lunch, back for video meetings and tactics discussion, back to rooms, supper of
toast and then bed at half ten - every day for 14 days" left the
squad shattered and ill-prepared for the start of the 2014-15 season, which saw
United endure their worst opening to a campaign for 25 years.
But
it has been Van Gaal’s refusal to alter his heavy-handed management style,
honed at Ajax in the mid-1990s,that has led to his inability to foster unity
behind his methods.
Under
Moyes and Sir Alex Ferguson, the first-team would regularly be given a day off
on a Monday following a Sunday game, but Van Gaal has insisted on his players
reporting for training on Mondays, when they would sit through a video replay
of the previous game.
But
such was the critical nature of the analysis – ‘he would crucify players in
front of each other,’ according to one source – that captain Wayne Rooney and
vice-captain Michael Carrick sought out Van Gaal to urge the manager to soften
his approach in order to avoid breaking the confidence of his players.
Van
Gaal accepted the advice and acted upon it by instead sending emails to
players with clips and notes attached.
The
majority of the players would not open the emails, however, knowing that inside
lay a raft of criticisms, prompting a tracker to be attached to reveal when the
emails had been opened.
The
players have since begun to open the files on their phones, ignoring the
contents, but ensuring that the email shows up as having been read.
Van
Gaal’s prescriptive approach to the game has also alienated his players, with
one senior figure confirming the manager’s instruction, as revealed in The
Independent in February, not to shoot at goal with their first
touch.
Players
regard Van Gaal’s football as too slow and methodical – "they are not
allowed to think for themselves" insisted one source close to the
players – and the strikers have grown exasperated by seeing so little of the
ball.
When
Rooney was dropped for the game at Stoke City on Boxing Day, the United and
England captain accepted his demotion, but only after making it clear to Van
Gaal that he wanted to play his natural game when he returned to the team
having lost his place after following the manager’s instructions on how to
play.
Van
Gaal, who has earned admiration in the boardroom for promoting youngsters such
as Marcus Rashford, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and FA Cup
matchwinner Jesse Lingard, is also regarded within the dressing-room as having
failed to control a group of different personalities.
Van
Gaal is blamed by some players for allowing Schweinsteiger to "take the
piss" since his injury, with the former Bayern Munich midfielder’s
regular absence from the club in between games becoming a source of annoyance
to many.
And
Memphis Depay, the £25m summer signing who was dropped from the FA Cup final
squad, is regarded as being allowed to waste his talent due to Van Gaal’s
mis-management.
The
Dutch winger was dropped to the reserves after making a mistake in the
draw with Chelsea in February, but then surprised many at the club by
turning up at the second string game in a Rolls-Royce.
Despite
being urged to leave the car at home by senior team-mate, who warned of the
negative message it would send to supporters by projecting such an ostentatious
image of wealth while the team were struggling, Depay nonetheless continued to
drive the same car into training.
And
while Rashford is regarded as a huge positive of Van Gaal’s spell in charge,
with the 18-year-old viewed as a grounded character and a "good kid," the
story of one player asking the club chef to cook him two hard-boiled eggs to
take home as he did not know how to boil them himself underlines the sense
within the squad that too much is now done for the younger element of the team.
If
Van Gaal’s departure is followed by that of Ryan Giggs, there will be sadness
at the loss of the Welshman, however, who has the backing of many senior
players to become the club’s manager.
Giggs
has impressed the squad with his coaching and his tactical analysis of
opponents – the specific job he has been assigned by Van Gaal.
There
is a belief within the squad that Giggs has kept his own counsel on Van Gaal’s
approach in order not to rock the boat, but he retains the respect and
admiration of the players, many of whom feel that a major rebuilding job is
required to make the team competitive again.
But
that task will fall to Mourinho rather than Van Gaal and after two years of
attempting to grasp the Dutchman’s philosophy, the vast majority of the squad
he leaves behind will not mourn his departure.
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