Louis van Gaal "is rubbish as a person", superstar kicks off at Man United manager

Posted Monday, March 30, 2015 by sportwitness.ning.com

Louis van Gaal

Hristo Stoichkov has been speaking to Catalan newspaper Sport who publish an interview with the player in their Sunday edition. The highlight of Stoichkov's words for Sport are what the club superstar has to say about his former manager Louis van Gaal, now at Manchester United. Sport headline their piece 'Van Gaal is rubbish as a person' and then detail the little rant Stoichkov had about his former manager.

"And then came Van Gaal... I will not have any respect for him, he is rubbish as a person... Look, the day I arrived at Barca was the happiest of my life and the saddest was when I left. It was because of Van Gaal."

That Stoichkov is ranting to the media and throwing names and insults at a man 17 years since he fell out with him perhaps says something itself about respect. Stoichkov was a wonderful footballer but was never scared of rating himself and his own abilities and at the same time using that confidence, and perhaps arrogance, to degenerate others. It was never going to be likely that Stoichkov would get on well with Van Gaal and so things proved. It's obviously left a huge mark on the Bulgarian if he's still so angry about it all nearly two decades later.

The truth, as usual with these things, will no doubt be somewhere in the middle. When Van Gaal was at Barcelona with Stoichkov the player was in his second period with the club. His first spell had been excellent and he couldn't live up to that. Perhaps Stoichkov's state of mind can be blamed on his waning abilities. The fact he failed to get into double appearance figures for his next two clubs, a return to CSKA Sofia and a spell with Al-Nassr, shows things weren't going well for him generally Then followed periods in Japan and America, Stoichkov was on his way down and Van Gaal wouldn't have been prepared to massage his ego and ignore that.