Did BM really call Louis Van Gaal "unproven"? I'll take an unproven manager who has led every previous club he managed to domestic league and cup titles, with a Champions League win and 2 runners up efforts on top of that. No doubt BM will think managing Ajax, Barca, and Bayern to domestic success is not much to crow about, but managing any club to back-to-back Champions League finals, winning one of them, is a feather in any managers cap. And lest BM object that success in the mid 90s is meaningless, he did take Bayern to the 2010 final. The real feather in Louis' cap, however, is taking AZ Alkmaar to the Eredivisie title in 2008/09. That's not quite Sir Alex winning the Scottish League with Aberdeen, but it's close. Losing a World Cup semi on penalties and then flogging the hosts in the 3rd place playoff (not to mention flogging the defending Champions) is no disgrace, either.
The one major worry is the bloke is obviously quite prickly, and he demands 100% commitment to his vision form his players (not a bad thing necessarily, but can become a bad thing if success is not forthcoming). He doesn't get on with the media, and all bar one of his previous club stints ended in acrimonious circumstances. Funnily enough, the one exception was AZ Alkmaar, where he apparently intended to quit after a disappointing season in 2007/08, was talked out of it by his players, and promptly led them to the title the next season, and only left because he was offered the Bayern job.
He was also apparently going to be the replacement for Sir Alex the first time he "retired", before the infamous change of mind. Really, a cranky bastard who demands 100% obedience from his players and hates the media seems like a perfect fit for our club. It worked pretty damn well for the last quarter of a century.
Seriously BM, do you ever tire of being wrong about every damned thing?
