KP’s Euro Bite No.1 – With Van Gaal at Manchester United and Germany’s World Cup triumph, we’ve all gone European!

By Kate Partridge. With the new football season only a month away, Kate Partridge looks at how Germany’s World Cup triumph has made Europe smaller – and hungrier for success.

After the clean-up operation at the Brandenburg Gate swept away the last traces of celebrations, the World Cup was finally over – and pre-season underway in a shrinking Europe.

Joachim Loew’s team proved on the ultimate stage the full potential of a cohesive unit over individual brilliance, aptly resulting in a first victory for a unified Germany – and a first European triumph on South American soil.

And while the Germans savour their afterglow, the rest of the continent is preparing for domestic business – amongst themselves. The transfer market merry-go-round has cranked into life, and the music blaring out is a contemporary mix of Entry of the Gladiators with La Vie en Rose.

The Dutch have lost their coach to Manchester United, who are also eyeing one of Juventus’ top midfielders. Liverpool have sold their best player to Barcelona. Chelsea have gone for Atletico Madrid’s left-back. Real Madrid have nabbed a Bayern Munich midfielder. And half a dozen teams are waiting to pounce on Juve’s France star Paul Pogba. We’ve all gone European. Even Manchester United.

Louis van Gaal is the epitome of the Euro super-coach. The 62-year-old Dutch polyglot has been everywhere, done it and carried the trophy back on the bus. He has won the domestic league with every team he has managed: Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich.

He has also claimed the Champions League and UEFA Cup with then unfancied Ajax. And, just days ago, led the mercurial Dutch to third place at the World Cup with victory over hosts Brazil, having flattened champions Spain en route.

Van Gaal has now gone to England’s most decorated club to become their first ever manager from outside the UK or Ireland. His advent coincides with TV behemoths Sky launching a European Football Channel that will broadcast the Dutch Eredivisie. Total football is being rolled out beyond the continent. The world’s game is blurring the national boundaries.

Foreign players in England are nothing new. Foreign coaches, ditto. Arsene Wenger is the Premier League’s longest serving and most successful current manager. Two years ago, Bayern Munich’s unique treble informed the rest of the continent that the Bundesliga was on the rise. But Germany’s victory in Rio was a watershed moment in long-held football loyalties.

Now it’s OK to like Germany. It’s acceptable to admire the way English-speaking former Tottenham hero Juergen Klinsmann and sidekick Loew systematically revolutionised their nation’s football following their Euro 2004 flop. A fourth shiny new star on the German shirt embarrasses the fading solitary English one, particularly after a winless group-stage exit.

As the black, red and gold tickertape floated around the Maracana, the iconic home of football was lauding an A-list visitor. The myth surrounding Brazil was popped like a balloon as lovers of the beautiful game looked north. Even a shell-shocked Juninho had looked on as his compatriots were crushed 7-1 in the semi-finals and admitted: “Germany played like Brazil used to…let’s see if we can learn from them”.

For the English, new generations removed from wartime loyalties and hooked on social media also openly admired that success, even if begrudgingly. Germany had faltered in 2004 then won the World Cup ten years later. It’s been 48 long years since the English lifted the supreme prize and are now seriously asking: “Isn’t it time we did better?” The hand-on-heart achievements of Costa Rica, the USA, Belgium and Colombia render that question rhetorical.

With success on the continental doorstep, romantic immortality long-attributed to South America is suddenly a reality within touching distance. And while more British voters are turning to UKIP, in contrast more English football supporters are turning to Europe – just as United fans are looking to van Gaal to bring the glory days back to Old Trafford.

We have seen, a decade on, what forward planning can achieve in Germany. Next season, more leagues will be more accessible to more viewers across the airwaves, their thinking, training and tactics available to millions. There are no more excuses left. The rebuilding starts now.

Which club has done the best business so far in this transfer window? Can Manchester United realistically win the Premier League title in Van Gaal’s first season in charge? 

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