New Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal is set for showdown talks with Jose Mourinho following his claim that signing Luke Shaw would have “killed” Chelsea, reports David McDonnell in the Sunday People.
The Dutchman is privately seething at Mourinho’s comments about United’s new full-back, seen by some as a bid to destabilise the former champions.
Mourinho said paying a 19-year-old £100,000 a week was economic madness and if Chelsea had agreed to Shaw’s wage demands they would have been “dead”.
Van Gaal, a former mentor of Mourinho when they were both at Barcelona, was fuming when he heard of the Portuguese’s tirade.
Though unwilling to be drawn into a war of words with the Blues boss, he said pointedly: “I don’t think I have to discuss things in the media, it’s better to discuss it with Jose.”
Shaw became the fourth-most expensive defender in history this summer when he joined United for £27million.
Chelsea, who Shaw supported as a youngster, were interested in the teenager, but Mourinho revealed he pulled out of a bid to sign the player due to his financial demands.
Mourinho claimed Shaw’s reported wages were way too high for a player who only made his top-flight debut in November 2012.
“If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, to sign Luke Shaw, we are dead,” Mourinho said.
“We would have killed stability in our dressing room, because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid, the next day we would have had players knocking on our door saying, ‘How is it possible I play 200 games for this club, won this and that, yet a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money?’”
Mourinho said earlier this week that he has a “fantastic” relationship with Van Gaal, but that looks set to be tested.
And Mourinho is not the only one on Van Gaal’s hitlist – he wants to get into the minds of his players to give them the mentality of champions again.
“The important thing is that I am training the players not in the legs, but in their brain,” said Holland’s World Cup manager. “They want to perform our philosophy, but we have to see how it develops. I see progression every day, and also some not good things. But we are here to improve.”
Van Gaal has gone to extraordinary lengths to plot United’s revival.
He has undertaken a radical overhaul of how the squad goes about its daily business, from training methods to seating arrangements at dining times.
Louis van Gaal oversees a shooting drill during a United training session:
Those within United have been amazed at the attention to detail, evident on the club’s pre-season tour of the USA.
Last week, Sunday People Sport exclusively revealed how Van Gaal had called for sleeping pods to be installed at the club’s Carrington training base, along with permanent floodlights so the players can train at night.
And in Los Angeles, Van Gaal ordered the club to book a Holiday Inn next to the LA Galaxy’s StubHub training complex, because the journey was too far from their Beverly Hills base.
The club bowed to Van Gaal’s demand so the players could have double training sessions, eating and sleeping at lunchtime before an afternoon workout. Van Gaal has also asked the club to send officials to the last two stops on United’s tour – in Washington and Michigan – to book hotels near their training bases.
Such attention to detail has even stretched to United’s dining, with Van Gaal wanting all of his players to eat in an orderly fashion at meal times.
Nutrition staff are also said to have been ordered to prepare meals according to strict guidelines, with the 62-year-old exerting control everywhere he can.
Van Gaal confirmed his approach and said: “Off the pitch, there are many rules the players must fulfil. I say things how they are, it’s my direct character.”