COMMENT: Van Gaal - rightly sacked, wrongly treated?

By Chris Hall, ITV Granada Sports Correspondent

The question of whether Louis Van Gaal should or shouldn’t have been sacked, I’ll leave to Manchester United fans. They pay the lofty Old Trafford ticket prices so, in my view, have bought the exclusive rights to frame that debate.

What I, and perhaps all sports reporters, should be mulling over is the broader point the Dutchman raised at a stormy and short-lived press conference back in a less-than-festive season last December.

I wasn’t in that room for the now infamous five minutes of what must have felt more like school detention than a media call. But my instinct was to side with my journalistic classmates. How could Van Gaal be so naïve? A man with 30 years experience with the top clubs in world football. A man who has managed in World Cups and won a Champions League. How ridiculous that a man of his stature could be so rattled and surprised by paper talk suggesting his job is on the line?

Especially after spending £250 million only to guide the club to what, at that time, was their worst run of form for quarter of a century.

After all. This is the famed English media. Known globally for its no-holds-barred, no mistake unscrutinised, no public appearance un-papped reputation.

He should have known to expect such speculation when he first took the job.

Maybe so. But does that make it right?

Is it right that we should be free to speculate wildly about something so precious as someone’s job security? As Van Gaal said that day, when he would much rather have been looking ahead to a run of the mill game against Stoke: “What do you think happens with my wife? With my children?” Those who’ve lived in fear of losing their job know the emotional strain it can put on the whole family. It could mean having to up-sticks and move to a new town to find work, dragging children out of school or leaving friendships behind. In the case of football managers, it often means leaving the country.

Some defiant and proud journalists will argue that their reports aren’t the cause of a sacking. They only reflect the mood of the fans or genuine boardroom rumblings from reliable sources. But we know what we’re doing. When we write a story full of inciting language like “pressure”, “failure” and “sack”, we are provoking an employer to act. And act quickly. Before the fans turn against them too. Our reports may not be the reason why someone’s walking the plank, but we sure are prodding him closer to the wet end.

I’m pricking my own conscience. I can’t claim to be innocent in this. TV journalists may not take part in some of the more invasive and aggressive forms of reporting. And we rarely start the debate over a manager’s position. But we’re more than happy to let the Fleet Streeters get their hands dirty, then we report on their reports. It all adds to the “clamour for the axe” – Another inflammatory cliché I’m guilty of using which dehumanises the subject matter.

If Van Gaal was a fireman, a teacher or a doctor, such taunting would be unthinkable cruelty. So what makes it right if he’s a football manager?

Money? Well. He will now, presumably, get a substantial pay off. David Moyes walked away with £7million. Van Gaal – with only a year left on his contract – may have to settle for a smaller payout but it will still dwarf severance packages for every industry bar, maybe, the banking sector. That certainly blunts my sympathy a bit.

But how big must a salary be, for undermining someone’s job to become acceptable? How do I calculate the wage-to-worry causing ratio?

Some would point to the privileged position he holds. Van Gaal was keen to point out at Wembley that ‘He’ had now won a cup in four countries. So he must also take responsibility for failing to deliver a place in next year’s Champions League. And for stubbornly standing by his ‘philosophy’ of a dreary un-United style of football. ‘His’ decisions have caused frustration for hundreds of thousands of supporters around the world.

But this is not an elected public figure. He’s not been spending public money. At least, not directly. Buying a season ticket is still a choice, not a tax. Even though it must have felt more like the latter for much of this season.

I’m not for a minute suggesting that no-one has the right to criticise a football manager’s decisions. Nor that the fans should have to hide their desire for a change in manager. As I’ve said, they’ve bought that right.

And I can’t promise that I’ll never again report on speculation. The competitive nature of my industry dictates that we can’t just ignore a major story, especially if all of our rivals are running it.

But maybe it’s time that the media, as a whole, took a step back from the impassioned cries of the terraces and at least considered treating football managers as people with jobs and families, rather than expensive disposable figureheads.

Or maybe I’m the naïve one. Being too soft for the job. Maybe somewhere there’s an axe with my name on it being clamoured for.