Managing Tottenham would have been the easier job: Van Gaal

NETHERLANDS – Louis van Gaal says he has no regrets about becoming the manager of Manchester United and claims that if he had wanted an easier tenure, he would have gone to Tottenham Hotspur instead.

Van Gaal, 63, was speaking to reporters after receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Netherlands Footballer of the Year gala on Monday night (Tuesday morning, Sept 2, Singapore time) and is now enjoying a short break before the Premier League resumes.

“I could have opted for an easier job. If I had gone to Tottenham, the job would not have been as enormous as here at United. I could have easily gone to Spurs. But I chose the biggest challenge of all the jobs in football. And I really wanted to join the number one club in the country, not Tottenham,” news website Mirror quoted Van Gaal as saying.

He added that Tottenham was a less attractive option to him: “In my eyes, [Manchester United] is still the number one club in England, Tottenham really is not.”

Van Gaal was heavily linked with succeeding Tim Sherwood at White Hart Lane and admitted in June that he had come “very close” to taking the Spurs job before United approached him.

The illustrious football manager faces a tough start to the season with Manchester United, only managing to capture two points out of three games against Swansea, Sunderland and newly-promoted side Burnley. United also slumped out of the Capital One Cup against lowly-rated side MK Dons,

But he was not to be hard done by the recent string of results.

He expressed confidence for the future in his charge of Manchester United: “I want to end my big coaching career here, at Manchester United,” he said. “I really want to bring the championship here to the people of Man United. AGENCIES