Louis van Gaal is preparing his Netherlands side for this winter’s World Cup, having led the nation to a third-place finish the last time they were involved in the historic tournament.
Van Gaal’s men narrowly missed out on a place in the 2014 final after losing to Argentina on penalties just days before officially replacing David Moyes at Manchester United.
The Netherlands will face Senegal in their opening game next week and the African champions will be without former Liverpool hero Sadio Mane for the game.
Speaking ahead of the 90-minute encounter, Van Gaal has revealed that he tried to sign Mane when he was in charge of United, when Mane was taking the Premier League by storm at Southampton.
“I wanted him when I was the manager at Man Utd,” Van Gaal is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
“I chased him at the time. I am a fan of Mane. He can break open a match and I would say Senegal will really miss him.”
In a huge blow to Senegal’s hopes of bettering their group exit of the last World Cup, Mane was ruled out of the tournament after sustaining an injury just days before the first game.
SN’s verdict…
United’s interest in Mane when Van Gaal was in charge was well-documented and at the time, it was met with mixed reactions by supporters.
As everyone is aware by now, Mane ended up joining Liverpool and helped the Merseyside club in their most successful period of the last 40 years.
There’s no guarantee that Mane would have had the same impact at Old Trafford but at face value, it’s definitely one of those deals where United missed out.
