LVG: Levelling Vanity With Guarantee

NEW DELHI: It was at the recently concluded end of season awards at Manchester United that the world got to see the human side of Louis van Gaal. Playfully slapping Ryan Giggs when he outbid the Dutchman for a charity auction, asking the United faithful to raise the roof for a saxophone player who performed earlier in the evening.

The rousing speech at the end geering the troops up for what he termed would be a summer of transition, a summer where a lot of players would be shown the door, and a lot being welcomed through them.

Managers very rarely drop the ball (or balls in LvG's case as the anecdote goes).

The demands of the job are such that you need to maintain a poker face for longer periods than at the the World Series of Poker.

The hard taskmaster that he is, it was more of a pleasant surprise for the personnel at Old Trafford than the world as he let his hair down, LITERALLY.

United captain Wayne Rooney described his year under van Gaal as "tough". The rest of the United squad joined in to express the change they had witnessed under the Dutchman in various ways, right from the inside to the minute they went on to the pitch to implement the plans that had been drilled in throughout the week.

And a quite a change it has been.

Marouane Fellaini recently disclosed in an interview that he was fined for turning up to lunch A MINUTE LATE.

Cameras being installed in every nook and cranny of their training base at Carrington, to monitor every movement of a player whilst they trained.

Quite a change from the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, the authority in world football on man-management.

The Dutch "trainer" as he likes to call himself, has been singing one and only one tune since the day he was unveiled.

The emphasis on his philosophy.

It's been well documented that his previous reigns at the creme-de-la creme of European clubs (Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Ajax, AZ Alkmaar) have all been successful due to the extent of the implementation of his policy.

It is such indulgence that raises confidence among his own troops and keeps the opponents guessing the the final minute of the pre-match handshakes.

The players that have taken Louis van Gaal's mantra as gospel have prospered and have nothing but glowing words of praise for him.

Xavi, Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Arjen Robben are just some of the glittering names that have not only begun but furthered their careers under the tutelage of the "Iron Tulip".

It is an unforgiving trust in his ways.

His unerring confidence in his ways that took Ajax to the top of the tree in Europe, took Barcelona to the La Liga crown in the same season when they were languishing at seventh at the half-way mark of his inaugural season in charge.

It is the success that his reign promises if his subjects followed his orders to the T.

Throughout the season, his methods have been mocked, questioned and even dismissed by journalists and pundits alike.

His press conferences are the place to be if you want to hear English spoken in the most luxurious accents because as a supporter you will never know which LvG will you see.

He could be passing around post-match analysis dossiers to the assimilated journos after being labelled a "long-ball team" jokingly by a fellow manager.

He could be giving you a thumbs up for asking a question and you would never know whether he meant it or not, because for Louis van Gaal, these are just formalities, chores to be done because they have to be done.

It is what happens on the pitch with his players that he seems to be most concerned about, the immovable belief that stems from the hunger of success.

At the end of a rousing speech at the Players gala, he mentioned that Manchester United are not far away from silverware, that success is just around the corner.