guardians

Louis Van Gaal: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Louis Van Gaal

What he said:

“It’s very important for a club such as Manchester United to have guardians of its culture.”

Manchester United’s new coach, Louis Van Gaal, hopes that the culture of the club will be retained with the introduction of fresh blood—youngsters—who have the ethos of the club ingrained in their DNA.

“Every youth player who comes through can be a guardian. The ‘Class of 92’ [Beckham, Butt, Giggs, Neville and Scholes] were guardians of the club’s culture. You need very good youth education so you have always more players who can become guardians.

Wayne Rooney is also a guardian of this culture now as captain and he can transfer this culture to his fellow players.”

Van Gaal intends to repeat his success in creating fresh cores at his former clubs with United.

He said:

“I did it with Barcelona where I gave debuts to Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Carles] Puyol and [Victor] Valdes. At Bayern Munich, we had [Holger] Badstuber, [Thomas] Muller and [David] Alaba who can guard the culture. I also want to do that here but the youth players have to take their chance when they receive it.”

What he really meant:

“Organizational culture cannot be created overnight. It is a gradual process and MU’s vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits will be imbibed by the players and affect the way they perceive, think and even feel.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“In simpler terms, I need easily influenced youth who I can then brainwash.”

2010 US Open: The Dad Versus The Uncle

A rain-delayed Monday US Open final dawns.

Can Djokovic repeat his moment of magic against the top seed, Rafael Nadal?

Nadal is the overwhelming favourite going into the Flushing Meadows final.

But Djokovic should look no further than his own box, more specifically his father wearing an extraordinarily loud T-shirt with the Joker’s mug smiling back at him for awesome motivation.

Djokovic’s dad , Srdjan Djokovic, dares to look ridiculous just so his son Djokovic can feel that he’s not alone struggling on that blue quad.

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