Louis van Gaal jokes about Paul Scholes & attacking football, plus how much he earns at United [Telegraph]

The Telegraph’s Ben Rumsby has today produced quotes from an exclusive interview with Louis van Gaal.

The Man United manager comes across as jovial, jokey and generally relaxed in the conversation with the broadsheet.

In particular, Van Gaal discussed his football career in Holland, being a father to two girls, how he got success at Ajax, why he bangs on about “philosophy”, and much more.

One suspects that the main quotes which will be pulled from the interview include Van Gaal’s joke about Paul Scholes and playing attacking football, plus his comments that he gets paid a lot of money for doing a lot of delegating at Man United.

The Red Devils are currently fourth in the table behind Man City, Arsenal and Leicester.

United will travel towards London on Saturday, when they take on Watford in the Premier League.

The best quotes from Louis van Gaal’s interview with the Telegraph are below:

I have played at the highest level in the Netherlands, until I was 32. But I was not a top player.

I know that when you analyse yourself, that you cannot be a top player. So, I knew in advance that I shall be maybe a very good trainer-coach.

We didn’t have any money (at Ajax) and we were bankrupt, so I had to look to youth. We scouted [Jari] Litmanen, a Finnish player, who we bought for £10,000. We also bought Finidi George. He was a Nigerian international. He was £3,000. I paid it by myself! And then, we bought Marc Overmars.

But the names that you do remember are [Clarance] Seedorf, [Patrick] Kluivert, [Michael] Reiziger. We won everything with very attacking football. I don’t say it too much because otherwise Mr Scholes will be very angry! [Laughs]

When you see my press conferences, I’m discussing a lot my philosophy. Sometimes, the media is not very proud of it. But, sometimes, they are firmly crazy for it because I explain a lot.

It takes always a little bit of time to transfer the message. I’m training in the brain – a lot of things in the brain – because football is not a sport of legs, it is a sport of brain, and tactics. So, that takes a lot of time.

I’m from a time where you [the manager] did everything. Now I’m the manager and I have a sports science department, I have a scouting department, I have a medical department, I have assistant managers, I have assistant coaches.

I don’t do anything – nothing! I delegate. I delegate, and I earn a lot of money [Laughs].