Having managed many of Europe\u2019s grandest teams, Louis van Gaal never had his heart broken quite so badly as he did with Manchester United.<\/strong><\/p>\n And as Ruben Amorim’s Red Devils look to salvage a dreadful domestic campaign with trophy success in the Europa League final<\/a> on Wednesday night, Van Gaal’s story serves as a reminder that silverware is not always enough to save your job.<\/p>\n 3<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> The legendary Dutchman made his name with arguably the biggest clubs in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, before doing the same in England.<\/p>\n Having won it all at Ajax<\/a>, Barcelona and Bayern Munich<\/a>, he jetted into Old Trafford in 2014, and left with the FA Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Van Gaal finished fourth in his debut campaign after replacing David Moyes<\/a>, and then won the first trophy of the post-Alex Ferguson era at Wembley in May 2016.<\/p>\n Yet that wasn\u2019t enough to keep him in situ, and his wife Truus has since opened up on how heartbroken he was over what they considered a premature dismissal.<\/p>\n “I knew Louis would be fired by Manchester United<\/a>, I felt it,” she said on the documentary ‘Van Gaal’.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We had a small boardroom there and it was always fun with the old Manchester legends, [Alex] Ferguson, Bobby Charlton<\/a>. We had a table there with good food and drinks.<\/p>\n “Suddenly, they stopped greeting us, just waved from afar. Something was wrong. It was female intuition.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen when the man [former CEO Ed Woodward] denies it, Louis accepts it. I said, ‘Louis, you’re going to be fired. Get wise to it’, and I slammed the door of the apartment shut.”<\/p>\n Despite the rumours about Jose Mourinho<\/a> replacing him, Van Gaal stuck to his task, overcoming West Ham in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, then Everton in the semis and Crystal Palace<\/a> in the final.<\/p>\n Yet faltering to a fifth-place finish and out of the Champions League was enough to force United\u2019s hand, as was the lure of Mourinho, immediately after the Wembley triumph.<\/p>\n 3<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> 3<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> But Van Gaal wasn\u2019t so aware of what was happening, as his wife explained: “After the FA Cup final, Louis said, ‘Well, we did it!’<\/p>\n \u201cI said, ‘Louis, they say you’ve been fired\u2026\u2019 He got so angry, ‘Why did you have to spoil my party? Stop all this aggressive nonsense!’.<\/p>\n “Later, he said, ‘Hi, it’s Louis. You can come home, you were right’. His voice sounded broken, so I said, ‘Alright, I’m on my way’.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came home, I could see he’d been crying. I hugged him. I had tears in my eyes too.”<\/p>\n Mourinho then arrived five months after his second Chelsea<\/a> stint had ended, and won the Community Shield, League Cup and Europa League<\/a> in his debut campaign.<\/p>\n![\"Things](\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/11\/manager-manchester-united-scratches-head-775908538.jpg?strip=all&w=960\")
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