Louis Van Gaal’s stint at Manchester United ended on a sour note for the Dutch tactician as after guiding the Red Devils to their 12th FA Cup title, the club parted ways with him. And the English giants have now revealed the amount they had to pay Van Gaal and his coaching staff. United had to spend £8.4 million to end Van Gaal’s spell at Old Trafford. The amount also covered the cost of terminating Van Gaal and his staff’s contracts early. According to reports in the Daily Mail, the amount is even less than the £10 million Everton paid to terminate Roberto Martinez’s contract.
Van Gaal took charge of the Old Trafford outfit in 2013 after United had a disastrous season under David Moyes. The Dutchman did not start his career at Old Trafford in style and lost 4-0 against third-tier side MK Dons in the League Cup. But by the end of the season, there were huge improvements in the team as they qualified for the Champions League by finishing fourth in the league.
But things started to deteriorate for Van Gaal during his second season at the club when he was consistently criticised for his style of play. United were labelled poor by the fans and pundits as they struggled to score goals and eventually ended the season in the fifth position and missed out on a Champions League spot. United scored an average of just 1.29 goals per Premier League match, having always been over 1.5 goals per game each season since the beginning of the revamped top flight in 1992.
But the pain of missing out on a Champions League spot decreased a little bit after Van Gaal led the club to FA Cup glory for the first time since 2004. And just when it looked like United would retain him for another season, the sacked him within 48 hours after winning the FA Cup. Well, one can say that the axing was really harsh on the Dutchman, who did a commendable job after the disastrous David Moyes spell. His win rate is the third best of all of United’s permanent managers at 51 per cent. But it is quite expected that a club like United can never be satisfied with fourth of fifth place finishes and to challenge for the title once again they replaced the Dutchman with Jose Mourinho.
Meanwhile, the English giants have announced their revenue for the 2016 financial year. The Red Devils have become the first club from the United Kingdom to earn £500 million in a year. United earned a whopping £515.3 million for the 2016 financial year. The amount is quite remarkable given United performance last season where an FA Cup win was the only big achievement by them. But they still managed to sign 14 sponsorship deals, saw commercial, matchday and TV revenues all rise which led to a record revenue.