What Gary Neville was convinced Louis van Gaal was going to do at Man United which never came true

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In total, Louis van Gaal was in charge of Manchester United for 103 games, yielding 54 wins and just the one major honour.

Van Gaal’s side lifted the FA Cup in the 2015/16 season, a game which Man United won in extra-time thanks to a late goal from substitute Jesse Lingard.

Of course, Van Gaal was sacked as United boss only a couple of days after that FA Cup win owing to the poor quality of football that was often watched at Old Trafford that season.

United finished fifth that year in the Premier League, the season Jamie Vardy’s Leicester City famously won the title, finishing 10 points clear of Arsenal.

That being said, towards the beginning of Van Gaal’s reign as United manager, pundit and former United player Gary Neville made a bold prediction about what the Dutchman would go on to achieve at the club.

Gary Neville thought Louis van Gaal would win the Premier League at Man United

Neville was speaking on Sky Sports in 2014 and put his neck on the line claiming that Van Gaal would win the Premier League within his first three seasons in the job.

The former right-back mentioned Angel Di Maria’s quality when justifying his prediction, which unfortunately didn’t come true.

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Despite his brilliant reputation in the game, Van Gaal didn’t even make it to his third season at Old Trafford, let alone win the league.

Sharing his prediction, Neville said: “I think Van Gaal will win the league here inside three years because I think that they will go again in January, I think they’ll go again next summer, and you can see there are glimpses.

“I mean with Di Maria, how can Man United win the game today? Well Di Maria is special and if they can feed him enough times then Chelsea will have problems with him.

“So I think once you add two or three more of that ilk to the squad – midfield and defence, of that calibre, I think United will win the league inside the next three years, but it won’t happen in his first season I don’t think.”

Louis van Gaal only wanted to stay at Man United for two years

Of course, Van Gaal was replaced by Jose Mourinho as United boss following a famous exit when the Dutchman slammed the FA Cup onto the table at his press conference after the final.

Interestingly, when reflecting on his time at United since, Van Gaal admitted that he only ever wanted a two-year contract at the club anyway, even though Ed Woodward had pushed for three.

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Van Gaal said: “The Glazers and Ed Woodward asked me [to sign for three years]. That is why I am still angry with the way they chose to do it.

“Ed Woodward knew Manchester United would be my last club.”

The former Ajax and Barcelona manager was aware that restoring United to their former glory wouldn’t be easy, but did defend his own achievements in Manchester in the same interview.

He continued: “They had seven players over 30. We spoke about that at the job interview. In my first year we qualified for the Champions League. In my second we won the FA Cup.”