Manchester United to give Louis van Gaal £150m transfer kitty

Manchester: Manchester United expect Louis van Gaal to win the Premier League title next season and have given their new manager a £150 million (Dh551 million) transfer fund to rebuild the squad this summer.

The Netherlands’ current head coach is to be unveiled at Old Trafford in July after he has taken his country to the World Cup and before United’s summer tour of the United States.

Van Gaal was announced as the Red Devils’ next manager on Monday — a day that also saw Ryan Giggs named as his No 2 and saw the club legend retire from playing after a glittering career spanning 23 seasons. Paul Scholes, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt, meanwhile, were left in the dark about their futures on the backroom staff.

Van Gaal has been challenged to win United a 21st title in his first season, with the vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, sanctioning a sizeable kitty to pursue targets that include Southampton’s Luke Shaw, Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben and Toni Kroos, and Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels.

Following the dismal championship defence under David Moyes that ended with United in seventh place, Van Gaal is confident he can again make the club serious challengers, with a Champions League berth the very least required. Van Gaal has previously won titles at Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich, having also won the European Cup with Ajax.

He told the Dutch television station RTL that one of the reasons he was chosen by United was for his record in working with young players, but he added: “The aim is to bring them back to the No 1 position as soon as possible, because that’s where they were under Sir Alex Ferguson.”

United’s executive co-chairman, Joel Glazer, said: “I am delighted that Louis will be our next manager. He has an outstanding pedigree as a coach, both as a man who motivates his teams to win trophies and as someone who believes in giving young players a chance to prove their worth.”

There was a welcome from one of his main rivals next season in the form of Jose Mourinho, whom Van Gaal appointed as his assistant at Barcelona.

“He is a great football manager and I am happy he joins me in the same country and the Premier League,” the Chelsea manager said. “But, more important than that, he’s a great guy, a great man, and I wish him well.”

Van Gaal said one of the first congratulatory text messages he received was from Mourinho. “He said he was jealous of my list of clubs,” the Dutchman said.

As Moyes was sacked on April 22, it took United four weeks to land Van Gaal, yet the 62-year-old was always the No 1 choice, having been first sounded out as the prospective new manager two days after the Scot’s sacking.

The delay is understood to have been due to United wishing to respect his current employer, the Dutch Football Association.

There was also the future of Giggs to consider, but, once it became clear that Van Gaal would offer the Welshman the role as his No 2, the Dutchman accepted after a meeting in Noordwijk last week. That is thought to have been the third face-to-face encounter between Woodward and Van Gaal, with Woodward “delighted” that the 40-year-old Giggs will remain on the coaching staff.

Although Marcel Bout and Frans Hoek are also joining Van Gaal’s coaching team — the latter appointment as goalkeeping coach, so Chris Woods departs — the futures of Scholes, Butt and Neville are still to be decided.

United consider the three members of the ‘Class of 92’ to be of great value to the club, though none of them have as yet been offered a role.