Xavi admits his first impression of Louis van Gaal was that of an 'Idiot'

Van Gaal with an 18-year-old Xavi during his spell as Barcelona manager

Former Barcelona midfield maestro Xavi has revealed that he was not too fond of Louis van Gaal during the initial stages of the Dutchman’s spell as the manager of Barcelona.

In an exclusive interview with ESPN, Xavi revealed, “After two days of training under him I thought, ‘Who is this idiot?’ After a week, I thought, ‘He’s right.’ He’ll always be in my heart, Louis van Gaal.”

Louis van Gaal served as the manager of Barcelona from 1997 to 2000. During his time with the Blaugrana, Van Gaal handed first-team debuts to the likes of Xavi, Puyol and Valdes. Former Barcelona captain Xavi, who now plays for Al Saad in Qatar, made his first-team debut in 1998 under the current United boss.

Xavi has recently admitted, that he wasn’t convinced of the Dutchman’s methods in the beginning.

The Barcelona icon also explained the change in the Dutch manager’s demeanor.

He said, “[He is a] good person, very good trainer. He has a very strong character, but he's calm in the Premier League because there's less pressure. He's much calmer than when he was at Barca or Bayern Munich.

“He's honest, methodical and a real perfectionist. He's very demanding, he's strict and he wants to achieve the highest levels possible.”

Xavi also said that Van Gaal is “poorly valued in the media” but he has the utmost respect for the manager who gave him the chance to shine at the top level of football.

Surprised that Mourinho has adopted defensive approach: Xavi

Xavi also talked about the former Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho who served as a translator to Sir Bobby Robson at Barcelona. Xavi invalidated the claims that the current Blues manager was just a translator in his early days.

He said, “Rubbish. He was the assistant coach, someone who understood the philosophy of Barca and who shared many of the same characteristics of Van Gaal. He was very respected by the players. He trained us sometimes alone at Barca B and he was excellent. I'm surprised that he became known for another type of football, more defensive because he wasn't like that with us.”

Xavi took time out to talk about the influence of another Dutchman in his life, Johan Cruyff. When asked about what his plans were after finishing his playing career was over, the 35-year-old said, “He [Cruyff] said to me: 'Look Xavi, when you stop playing, you're going to realise that the closest thing you can do to still feel like a footballer is to be a coach.

“You don't want to be in the office, you want to be by the grass.' Cruyff added, 'When I stopped, I didn't know where I was, I was lost. When I started to manage, I realised that was the place I wanted to be.”