Louis van Gaal snubbed Neymar and Muller transfers to sign two Man Utd flops

Louis van Gaal opted against signing Neymar and Thomas Muller during his time in charge of Man Utd in favour of landing two stars who flopped.

The Dutchman spent more than £275million on 14 players over his two-year spell in the hot seat – many of whom failed to deliver at Old Trafford.

United’s strategy at the time focused largely on signing big-name stars and club chiefs had Neymar and Muller in their sights.

According to ESPN the club even went as far as making enquiries about both players with their respective employers, but van Gaal moved for other targets.

Instead United signed Memphis Depay and Muller’s Bayern Munich teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger despite members of the club’s hierarchy having reservations on both players.

Depay cost United £31million in 2015 but was offloaded to Lyon just 18 months later for an initial fee of around half that.

The winger has since rejuvenated his career in France but did not hit the same heights in a United shirt.

Meanwhile Schweinsteiger pitched up at United with a superb reputation having been central to Germany’s World Cup win in 2014 but the aging midfielder was already on the decline.

He lasted little longer than Depay after being frozen out under Jose Mourinho before eventually joining Chicago Fire.

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Neymar and Muller are not the only players van Gaal missed out on when United boss.

They were among 10 stars van Gaal claims he wanted to take to Old Trafford, also including Robert Lewandowski, James Milner, Sergio Ramos and Sadio Mane.

In the case of Mane, ESPN’s report adds that the Senegalese forward actually rejected the chance to move to United from Southampton because he did not like van Gaal’s tactics, opting to sign for their rivals Liverpool instead.

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