Juan Mata on Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho and Ole

LOUIS VAN GAAL

“He was scary! He was scary, I tell you! He was a very nice man, very genuine. Very sensible. You wouldn’t expect that, but he was very sensible. He could even get emotional and crying sometimes when he was speaking about important matters that he found with the right values, or the right football… he got emotional.

“But I remember the first meeting we all had with him. It was in LA. We were doing a pre-season tour. So the manager said: ‘I want to meet you one by one in this room after dinner’. I was like ‘okay’.

“Everyone went, whatever. My turn. So I arrive to the room and it was him, Ryan Giggs, a bottle of Rioja, red wine, and three glasses. He said: ‘Do you want to have the drink?’ And I said, ‘No, no, it’s fine’. He said, ‘Okay, I’ll have it’. So he had the drink, and he said, ‘Tell me who you are?’

“I mean, ‘My name is Juan, I’m 26, I play football’. ‘No, no, no. Tell me who you are as a man. Do you have family? What do you find important in life?’

“I remember he had like paper, where he had set up the tactics for the team and that year, and he was like ‘Where do you think you will fit best here?’ I was like ‘here’ and he said ‘No’. ‘Here?’ ‘No.’