Louis van Gaal broke down in tears after a row with his wife in the wake of his Manchester United sacking.
Van Gaal took over as United boss after leading Netherlands to the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup. He won the FA Cup in his second season, beating Crystal Palace in the final after extra-time, but that proved to be his final game in charge before he was replaced by Jose Mourinho.
The Dutch coach spent time out of management after leaving Old Trafford, only returning in 2021 when he was hired to take charge of his national side for a third time. Now, Van Gaal's wife Truus has shared the story of what happened when the Champions League -winning manager knew his time in England was up.
"I knew Louis would be fired by Manchester United, I felt it," Truus said on the Amazon Prime documentary 'Van Gaal'. "We had a small boardroom there and it was always fun with the old Manchester legends, [Sir Alex] Ferguson, [Sir] Bobby Charlton. We had a table there with good food and drinks.
"Suddenly, they stopped greeting us, just waved from afar. Something was wrong. It was female intuition. Then when the man [then-United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward] denies it, Louis accepts it. I said, 'Louis, you're going to be fired. Get wise to it', and I slammed the door of the apartment shut."
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United finished fourth in Van Gaal's first season in charge, having spent more than £100million on the likes of Angel Di Maria, Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw. Another big-spending summer followed, with Anthony Martial and Memphis Depay among those to arrive, but the cup win didn't make up for a fifth-place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League.
"After the FA Cup final, Louis said, 'Well, we did it!'. I said, 'Louis, they say you've been fired.'," Truus continued. "He got so angry, 'Why did you have to spoil my party? Stop all this aggressive nonsense!'.
"Later, he said, 'Hi, it's Louis. You can come home, you were right'. His voice sounded broken, so I said, 'Alright, I'm on my way'. When I came home, I could see he'd been crying. I hugged him. I had tears in my eyes too."
Van Gaal confirmed after Netherlands' World Cup elimination that the game would be his last in management, after he briefly came out of retirement to take charge of his country for the third time. The Oranje reached the quarter-finals in Qatar, eventually losing to Argentina on penalties.
"First and foremost, I won’t be continuing," he said after the match. "I only did it for this period of time. This was my very last match of my third term as head coach.
"In that time, I coached 20 matches and we didn't lose a single one. I don’t know how many matches we won, but you can Google, 'Louis van Gaal, Dutch team', and see the goal difference for yourself."
