Pre-seasons are usually more about getting fit than putting together a string of results though Manchester United great Sir Bobby Charlton is delighted the team is winning again.
World Cup winner Charlton, 76, described new manager Louis van Gaal as a ‘really clever man’ and says this year’s morale-boosting pre-season tour will work wonders on the club, on the back of their woeful seventh-placed finish last term and having already carved up 10 goals in two matches on their current trip.
“You would have said it doesn’t matter really, but it was very nice when you’re 7-0 up and beating an Italian team, well that’s serious stuff,” the ex-midfielder, who made 758 appearances for United from 1956-73, told MUTV.
“I’m so, so pleased the way things have turned out. We struggled a little bit and maybe a few people made mistakes but we don’t think we’ll make them now.”
Long term manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2012/13 season and handpicked ex-Everton boss, fellow Scot David Moyes, to succeed him.
Moyes was not without credentials after years of overachieving at Preston North End and then Everton but from the moment he replaced Ferguson’s equally highly successful backroom staff with his own men, the United faithful were sceptical about his reign and it ended in misery in April.
Charlton greeted Van Gaal, appointed in May, into Old Trafford for the Dutchman’s first press conference nearly two weeks ago and was clearly impressed by what he saw in the former Netherlands, Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss.
“We’ll be well served by a really, really clever man.”
Main image courtesy of Laureus, with thanks.
