Angel di Maria and the Van Gaal split that made him ‘hate’ Man Utd
Of course, there are two sides to every story and in response to Di Maria’s comments, Van Gaal was asked for his own observations.
First, the highly respected former Netherlands coach said he never wanted to sign the player. It was a club decision that he felt was a mistake.
The second is a structured manager with a vision for the game, assigning each player a job description and the role they must fulfill.
Van Gaal argues that he tried Di Maria in many positions before finding one where he was effective.
But Di Maria’s criticisms are pointed and personal.
“Like I said, I started off really well. Everything was perfect. But then all of a sudden we started having a lot of meetings on the field about the things I was doing wrong,” he said.
“He never showed me what I was good at, only his negativity over and over again. “I finally got fed up.
“Life was very different there. It gets dark very early and then the cold sets in. Everything escalates like an avalanche. My house was also broken into.
“When all this happens, when you’re not playing, when things aren’t going well for you, when you have problems within the club, it affects you a lot. It made me hate being there.”
“So I got robbed in Paris and stayed there for another two or three years because life was good there.
“Everything snowballed in Manchester. I wanted to put my family first and that’s why I left.”
Di Maria’s wife, Jorgelina Cardoso, was also unhappy in Manchester, saying in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2022: “I don’t like it at all. The people are all weird. You walk around and you don’t know if they’re going to kill you. The food is disgusting. The women look like porcelain.”
“Angel and I were in Madrid, with the best team in the world, perfect food, perfect weather, everything was perfect. Then the offer from United came.
“I told him ‘no way, no way’ but he kept saying we should go because we would be a little more financially secure. We fought about it. I don’t blame him for going there. It was terrible.”
“I just told him ‘darling, I want to kill myself, it’s two o’clock in the morning’.”
