Manchester United held its awards dinner on Tuesday night, and its manager stole the show from big winner David De Gea.
Louis van Gaal took the microphone late in the event to celebrate his fans for their support despite his rocky first 10 games at the helm, and then told a spinning, winding, boisterous story detailing a point in the Red Devils season.
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Watch the video below, and about midway through feel free to follow along with our transcription:
“You remember the away game against Chelsea? Oh no, no no, you have to listen! I ask you, I ask you to listen. Because at that time, we have 50 points and Rooney says in the dressing room we (will go) for second place, then six games in a row we win, and then we go to Chelsea, who are the better team then! It’s easy to say that now in this room. I can’t believe it. It was the truth, but we lost that game. BUT can you imagine? When you have 80 percent ball possession, you have 10 big possibilities and they have three, and they win the game. When we win that game, count the number of points we could’ve win, cause after that we lost two games in a row. So three games in a row. But when you see that, we have 30 points and then Chelsea has 83 they have now, at that moment 80 points and they could have been the champion. So what I want to say to you, we are very close! But as a manager, I know that if is not counting. If is not counting. We have to produce more. And believe me, the players, but also the staff and also the organization like Manchester United shall do their utmost best, and why? Because we have the best fans of the world.”
In a rambling, non-native language way, it’s wonderful. Ifs don’t count.