Towards the end of my 45 minutes with Louis van Gaal his eyes lit up when our conversation turned to his great 1995 Ajax side. The sternness disappeared from the new Manchester United manager’s face as he pointed to his tactics board and recited the names in his young Champions League winning team of 19 years ago.

Before I can start with the questions, Van Gaal beats me to it. He lays his palm on the desk. “I have a notebook, for you,” he says. “It’s always what I show my players. You can make the system that we’re playing now.”
He is inviting me to prove to him that I understand how United now line-up.
I’m on the back foot. The gauntlet has been thrown down.
“You want me to?” I say.
“Yeah, of course,” he says. “You can do that. Or not?”
By now I feel a prickly heat. I say: “I’ll have a go, but you’re going to tell me I’m wrong.”
Van Gaal gives me a penetrating look: “You are a little bit ... shy?”