Van Gaal: I've had no contact with Mourinho

Louis van Gaal has said Jose Mourinho hasn’t called him to confirm or deny rumours that he is in talks with Manchester United to become the next manager at Old Trafford.

Mourinho was Van Gaal’s assistant at Barcelona in the late 1990s and the two maintained a seemingly cordial relationship during the brief time they overlapped as managers of Man United and Chelsea, respectively.

However, with Van Gaal’s tenure as United manager in jeopardy due to lacklustre results — including a 2-1 loss to Sunderland on Saturday — and with Mourinho now departed from Chelsea and widely rumoured to be his replacement as soon as this summer, the Dutchman said he hasn’t heard from his colleague.

“I wouldn’t expect Jose Mourinho to call me about that. No. In the football world that doesn’t happen. Nor will I ring him,” Van Gaal told reporters. “If I did, then you think the stories are right and it is not like that. I am not thinking like that.

“In the past, I was chairman of the coaches federation in the Netherlands and we had a rule that you can never talk with a club without informing the present manager.

“But in football it’s not usual that you speak with other managers like that.

“It wasn’t a good rule, no! Sometimes it has been broken by people and by managers. It is always like that. It is not always an honest world.”

Van Gaal has said repeatedly he thinks the story about Mourinho replacing him is made up and that he has the full support of the Glazer family, who own United, as well as the club’s board.

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