Dutch legend Ronald de Boer believes that Memphis Depay should choose Manchester United over Liverpool purely because of the fact that the Reds manager is Louis van Gaal. De Boer believes that the close relationship between Van Gaal and Depay might suit the young winger moving to Old Trafford over their rivals.
Last year World Cup was the breakthrough for Memphis Depay. He impressed everyone in his time at Brazil to help Dutch manage a respectable third place finish. In the World Cup, his national team coach was the former Bayern Munich, Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal
Van Gaal to the surprise of many named the 21-year-old in his Holland squad for last summer’s World Cup. That decision paid off as Depay became a pivotal player for the team by scoring crucial goals including the winner against Australia to help the Dutch progress through to the knock out stages.
De Boer believes that Depay who according to him is like an young Cristiano Ronaldo may benefit a lot from the Dutch mans service. Also the close relationship which they had during the summer in Brazil might be a contributing factor in United edging over rivals like Liverpool and Bayern Munich, who have also shown interest with the player.
“I don’t want to say which club is more suitable for him. But if he goes to United he knows there’s a Dutch coach there in Van Gaal who knows him from the World Cup. That’s an advantage. He’s one of the biggest talents in Europe – he has everything” said de Boer.
PSV have confirmed that United have already expressed an interest in Depay, who is the Eredivisie’s top scorer this season with 20 goals. De Boer, who sees similarities between Depay and Cristiano Ronaldo, believes that the young Dutch winger has all the potential to reach the Portuguese level.
“He has skill compared to a young Cristiano Ronaldo. He is very lively, technically unbelievable, very skilful, very fast, he has a great goalscoring record, he can shoot from every distance – he has everything. For me, he is without doubt one of the best talents we have” said the former Ajax boss.
Earlier PSV coach Phillip Cocu has admitted that Depay will leave at the end of the season. “That’s unfortunate, but on the other hand, we must as a club be proud because we have trained him. At some point, it becomes clear that he is ready for the next step. And yes, I think he’s going to leave PSV after this season,” he said.
Depay himself dropped a major hint last month when he favourited a tweet linking him to United. Also with Manchester United desperate to sign a winger this summer, Van Gaal need not have to go far in search of promising potential player for the position.