Former Manchester United fullback Rafael da Silva has spectacularly claimed that Louis van Gaal was the worst manager he has ever had.
The Brazilian arrived to Manchester with his twin brother Fabio in 2008 from Fluminense.
He would go on to play 170 games for the first team and become a cult hero under Sir Alex Ferguson.
His attacking flair and immense passion while on the pitch made him a fan favourite, where he would win three Premier League titles.
Nonetheless, his career at Old Trafford turned sour when Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
Despite taking to the pitch 29 times for David Moyes in 2013/14, the Brazilian would only play 11 times for United in the 2014/2015 season when Van Gaal became coach and was sold to Olympique Lyonnais in the summer of 2015.
Speaking to football magazine FourFourTwo, Rafael lambasted the Dutchman’s coaching abilities.
Commenting on the manager, the 34 year old claimed “absolutely, without a doubt. He was the worst coach I’ve ever worked with in my career – no question about it.”
When pushed on why this was the case he asserted, “I’ll tell you the reason why: he just looked me in the face and said, ‘I don’t like you’.”
He claimed that the only reason he got any sort of game time that season was because “Ryan Giggs and some other senior names begged him to let me play.”
The former defender who retired in 2023 claimed that, “the guy wanted me out of the football club on his second day in the job” as he believes he never stood a fair chance to prove his worth to the team.
He stated that he was stuck in the reserves and luckily scouts from Lyon had come to watch him and he was offered the chance to play senior football again in France.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
