It has emerged that Louis van Gaal demands that his Manchester United players hand in their mobile phones the night before a match. The practice was actually introduced by Sir Alex Ferguson to prevent the leak of team news before games, but it has been keenly continued by the former PE teacher.
One wonders whether the prohibition extends to tablets, laptops and other devices and distractions – it all sounds like a young footballer’s vision of hell in a hotel room. Perhaps efforts to skirt the ban might serve to increase team spirit, in the manner of teenagers sneaking in cans on a school trip.
The Daily Mail have claimed that the notoriously strict Dutchman will also drop any player who is late for breakfast on the morning of a game.
According to biographer Maarten Meijer, during van Gaal’s time in charge of Ajax, players would be fined for turning up even one minute late for breakfast and were encouraged to only talk about football. The penalty would be doubled for a second offence.
Since taking over at United, van Gaal has made the first team and youth squads eat together at 1pm every day. He also had £500,000 worth of HD cameras installed at Carrington.
Professional footballers are well used to rules that would seem outrageously restrictive to most other adults, so it remains to be seen whether these practices will have a direct and lasting effect on van Gaal’s men.
