It is the beach trips that sum up the difference between Louis van Gaal and David Moyes.
For Moyes, a training session this time last year on Sydney’s Bondi Beach midway through a week-long pre-season tour ended with Manchester United seeking refuge after word spread of United’s presence on one of the world’s most famous beaches. It became impossible for the session to continue.
For his replacement Van Gaal, it was a means to an end, directing the team bus half an hour out of its way – towards Santa Monica instead of straight to the hotel – after a 12-hour flight from Manchester to Los Angeles. This, he reasoned, would get the lactic acid out of his players’ legs and ensure they were better prepared for the following day’s training.
Two men, two beaches, two very different outcomes.
One seemed to underestimate the scale of interest in the club he had been appointed to manage, not thinking that the team’s presence would attract scores of onlookers. The other was clear in his vision – he set out to accomplish a task and did exactly that.
Van Gaal on tactics and Ferguson
It is obvious there are aspects of Manchester United’s pre-season tour of the United States that Van Gaal, vastly experienced at the highest level following stints in charge of Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the Netherlands, would never have sanctioned had he been in place when they were arranged.
“You have to travel distances, you have to fly a lot, you also have jetlag – that is not very positive for a good preparation,” he said.
Assistant manager Ryan Giggs signed off the tour schedule, although the Welshman did not arrange it.
Even the daily trip from their Beverly Hills hotel to the LA Galaxy training base 25 miles away in Carson took an hour.
Once there, the facilities were excellent, but then so were the ones Real Madrid used at the University of California – and that was only a mile from Beverly Hills, where the European champions were also staying. Distances are important in Los Angeles, where traffic is so dense.
The excessive travelling lay at the heart of Van Gaal’s criticism of the club’s touring schedule, which he voiced in public twice within a week of reporting for his first day as Manchester United manager on 16 July.
On neither occasion did he inform the man responsible for appointing him, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, or his commercial team that he was about to air his grievances in a forum that would ensure they were transmitted around the world.
Moyes, who sometimes appeared ill at ease in front of the cameras, tended to confide in a select few. Van Gaal, knowing the likely impact, told everyone.
No-one can be sure how the next 10 months will pan out for the 62-year-old, but there is a certainty about the Dutchman, an inner confidence which gives rise to renewed optimism among fans who have just witnessed United’s worst league campaign in 24 years.