Former Premier League star Craig Burley has made a passionate argument for Sir Alex Ferguson to return to Old Trafford for the rest of the season.
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Speaking to ESPN FC, the 44-year-old was adamant that Van Gaal’s time at Manchester United was coming to an end after their 2-1 defeat to Norwich City on Saturday.
While the Dutchman’s style of play was again criticised, Burley believes that he simply hasn’t been able to gel with the culture and philosophy at the Manchester giants and things will not get better any time soon.
As a result, he called for Ferguson to come out of retirement after quitting the game in 2013, and guide the club to the end of the season with a view of competing for a Premier League title and bringing back some excitement for the Old Trafford faithful.
At the end of the season, Burley believes that United must then target the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho in order to take the club forward as that is simply not going to be the case under Van Gaal, in his opinion.
United have endured a miserable month in December, which has ensured that their last win in all competitions came on November 21 against Watford.
After three consecutive draws with PSV, Leicester City and West Ham United, they have now lost games to Wolfsburg, Bournemouth and Norwich to leave their season on the brink of becoming a disaster.
It isn’t expected to get any easier for them when they take on Stoke City on Boxing Day, as they have now fallen out of the top four places in the Premier League and are nine points adrift of league leaders Leicester.
With a Europa League campaign to look forward to next year, Van Gaal will be under severe pressure to turn things around as even though it might not be Ferguson, United could be forced into action sooner rather than later in finding a replacement.