Furious Van Gaal walk-out only adds to pressure on Man Utd boss

“I wish you a Merry Christmas and also maybe a Happy New Year when I see you. Enjoy the wine and a mince pie. Goodbye.”
And with that, Louis van Gaal was gone. Less than five minutes into the press conference called to preview Saturday’s clash with Stoke City, the Manchester United manager was striding out of the room. Having spoken of his distaste for speculation regarding his future, he had done what he had come to do.
But if Van Gaal thought the media had been rough on him before now, he has surely only made matters worse for himself.
"I don't think that you can do that [speculate], because you have to stick by the facts," he told the media. "And when I get calls of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill and Ed Woodward because you are creating something that is not good, that is not being the facts, and now I have to answer questions? I don't think I want to do it."
His insistence that he should have been immune to speculation is frankly bizarre given United’s recent run, which has seen them collect only three wins from 13 games. And the claim that United could be back at the top of the Premier League within four weeks, while not entirely deluded, was extremely optimistic given their relative form to those teams around them.
He may well have felt buoyed by the behind-the-scenes meetings he has held this week to an apparently positive audience of players and staff, but there is clearly a lot still wrong at Manchester United Football Club right now. It will take much more than four weeks and surly speeches to the media to fix it.