Manchester United have announced Louis Van Gaal as their new manager on a three year contract. The Dutchman takes over from David Moyes who was sacked in April after a disastrous and tumultuous reign of 10 months. Van Gaal is one of the most decorated managers in all of football having won titles with Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmar and Bayern Munich and one Champions League with Ajax. He is famous for promoting youth players into a senior side like Patrick kluivert, Marc Overmars, Frank De Boer, Dennis Bergkamp, Xavi Carlos Puyol, Thomas Muller and Toni Kroos.

He is known to be very strict and have no hesitation to punish players if they do wrong. Van Gaal has stated his desire to manage in the premier league for a while, since the world cup draw.

He is currently managing the Holland national team and will lead them into the world cup which has always been a dream of his. Most of his old players have spoken highly of him, regarding him as the best manager they’ve worked with.

The rumour mill about Van Gaal and a premier league club started as far back as January when he was linked to Tottenham after they sacked Andre Villas Boas. A few weeks later, rumours about United started to surfer but where easily dismissible. In April more rumours emerged that Joel Glazer. One the family who own United had met with Van Gaal in Switzerland but this was immediately met with denial by the club. A few weeks later with United officially failing to qualify for the champion’s league, the united board and the Glazers decided to sack Moyes after 10 months in charge. Once that was done the rumour mill went into overdrive about who would come in with some speculation that said Jose Mourinho was being lined to get him out of Chelsea. Other reports said Pep Guardiola from Bayern Munich would take the role. Then less than a week after the sacking reports in Holland it emerged that Van Gaal had agreed to become the manger. Day after day more stuff was reported and it led to this becoming the worst kept secret.

Eventually on May the 19^th, it was confirmed at precisely 2:00pm that Louis Van Gaal had signed a three year contract to become The Manchester United manger. This was met with approval from fans and ex-players.

The First challenge will be to get United back into the top 4 and the second challenge will be to get united challenging for the Premier League and trophies again. The third will be to revamp the squad with Nemanja Vidic heading to Inter Milan, Rio Ferdinand not being offered a renewal on his contract and Gigg’s retirement. Reports that Man United are looking at seven or eight targets this summer will be a big one for United fans. With their financial muscle you would expect a lot of players to come to Old Trafford.

Next season is make or break for the red side of Manchester to get back amongst the big boys and with the new arrival of a manager coming in, we would hope that united will be back to their best next season. We also hope that Van Gaal will have a good encounter with the likes of Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Brenden Rodgers and Manuel Pellegrini.   All I can say is enjoy the ride and be prepared to fear Manchester United again because the Dutchman’s era has begun.