5 worst signings made by Louis van Gaal at Manchester United

#3 Angel di Maria

Di Maria was disastrous for Manchester United

Every club tries to find a stroke of lightning at the end of a dark tunnel. The 2013/14 season was horrendous for Manchester United and hence they wanted to see an inspirational, spectacular figure in the squad. Louis Van Gaal and the board seemed to have pulled off a stunner when they successfully lured Angel di Maria from Real Madrid for a British record fee of €75 million.

The Argentine was had won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2013/14 and was instrumental in the whole campaign. However, when Real decided to force him out of the squad in order to accommodate James Rodriguez, United pounced on the opportunity to sign the winger.

However, there were rumours from the beginning that United wasn’t the preferred of the former Benfica man as the player wanted to play for PSG. In England, he endured a horrific season in which he scored just thrice in 27 Premier League appearances.

He even recorded ten assists and that makes up for a decent tally in a debut season. However, towards the Christmas period, his performances deteriorated drastically and the Argentine spent the final months of the season mostly on the bench. His attitude on the pitch did not help his case either. He was played as the centre-forward in one of the games, and that highlights the tactical naivety of LVG, which troubled the player's time at Manchester too.

Van Gaal’s reserved approach towards the game restricted him from playing his natural game and hence Di Maria was visibly frustrated in England. Additionally, his house was burgled and hence the off-field as well as the on-field issues combined to make it a terrible period for him in England. He later moved to PSG after spending just a single season at Manchester United. The financial loss that the club suffered through this deal was too big to ignore.