{"id":1036,"date":"2014-08-30T08:15:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T08:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2014-08-30T08:15:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T08:15:10","slug":"top-four-manchester-uniteds-target-van-gaal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1036","title":{"rendered":"Top four, Manchester United\u2019s target \u2013 Van Gaal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"van<\/a>has set Manchester United an initial target of a top-four finish in this season\u2019s Premier League.<\/p>\n

United\u2019s new manager is yet to deliver a competitive victory and suffered the indignity of a 4-0 defeat at League One MK Dons in Tuesday\u2019s Capital One Cup tie.<\/p>\n

Neither that setback, nor a return of just one Premier League point from two games, has dented the Dutchman\u2019s confidence and he remains convinced he can bring a new era of domestic and European success to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

Van Gaal is even refusing to rule out a title challenge this season, but ahead of Saturday\u2019s trip to Burnley he has again stressed it will take time to rebuild United\u2019s squad and successfully implement his methods.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cBefore September 1, I have given every player a reasonable chance \u2013 it would not have been good to come as a new manager and say \u2018I want 11 new players\u2019. The process needs time and we are building up a new team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we shall succeed and that we are this year in the top four, because the Champions League suits a club like Manchester United.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen maybe the next step is to be champions and the next step after that is to be winner of the Champions League, but that needs time. A lot of clubs fight for many, many years and never succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can still be the champions of England in my first year. Maybe you will laugh but in my former clubs I have started like this so for me it is not big news.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gaal reminded the press of the positive reports which accompanied United\u2019s successful pre-season tour of the United States, where Roma, Real Madrid and Liverpool were all defeated.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI was a king in the United States, and now I am not a king any more? I am the same Louis van Gaal with the same record and the same philosophy, and I am very confident I shall succeed here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has set Manchester United an initial target of a top-four finish in this season\u2019s Premier League. United\u2019s new manager is yet to deliver a competitive victory and suffered the indignity of a 4-0 defeat at League One MK Dons in Tuesday\u2019s Capital One Cup tie. Neither that setback, nor a return of just one Premier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/van-gaal.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-gI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}