Louis van Gaal’s management career is over.
One of the game’s great coaches had his final match on Friday evening as the Netherlands were knocked out of the World Cup by Argentina.
It’s always sad to see a legend of the game ride off into the sunset, and there is a real feeling of grief knowing that such a huge footballing figure is no longer in the game.
However, there is one club that may not be too upset to see van Gaal’s retirement – Leeds United.
Indeed, while van Gaal’s managerial career has been winding down over the past few months, he still found a way to rub a few clubs up the wrong way, and one of those was Leeds.
Cast your mind back to the summer and you’ll remember that Cody Gakpo was incredibly close to signing for Leeds on transfer deadline day, but in the end a deal didn’t come to fruition.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Louis van Gaal had a huge part to play in Gakpo snubbing Leeds, but now, he’s no longer the Netherlands boss and won’t have such an influence on the ‘dangerous’ attacker.
So, does that mean Leeds now have a free run at signing Gakpo? Well, not quite.
Since the summer links, Gakpo’s reputation has grown substantially. He’s been touted as a £70m player and is attracting interest from the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool.
With such huge figures being banded around and massive clubs interested, one has to imagine that Leeds will be out of the race to sign Gakpo.
Van Gaal may well have cost Leeds the chance to make one of their very best signings here.
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