Ronald Koeman vs. Louis van Gaal: Breaking Down the Manager Dugout Battle

Sat behind a desk at his weekly press conference, Louis van Gaal was in no mood to talk about the nature of his relationship with Ronald Koeman.

The two Dutch coaches will go head-to-head at St Mary's when Manchester United travel to Southampton on Monday night. It won't be the first time they've squared up.

Their history provoked plenty of questions at Carrington on Friday, but Van Gaal wasn't about to start digging up the past, insisting to the Manchester Evening News that some things should remain private.

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I don’t have to describe my relationship with the trainer of the opponent. That’s more private I think. We play against Southampton and we have to speak about Southampton and not the trainer coach.

I think they have a very good squad, some of whom I know.

I think they are able to come in the first four. But that's also because I believe in the management, in Ronald Koeman. I believe the cohesion is good, and he can manage.

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Van Gaal's praise of Koeman and Southampton, the team he has guided to third in the Premier League table, is perhaps a sign that the ill feeling between them is starting to fade.

They chatted briefly at a recent manager's meeting in Manchester, and asked about Southampton's prospects this season, Van Gaal said he "believed" in Koeman's ability as a coach. Koeman has also been very respectful when the topic of United's manager has come up.

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It hasn't always been like that. Van Gaal appointed Koeman as his assistant at Barcelona in 1998, adding to a management team that already included Jose Mourinho. 

Barcelona won the Spanish title in 1999. But when Van Gaal left the Nou Camp in 2000, Koeman took up his first management role at Vitesse.

Success there earned Koeman the chance to manage Ajax, a club at which he had spent three years as a player between 1983 and 1986. He won the title in 2002, but that didn't stop Ajax appointing Van Gaal as technical director in 2003. It was in Amsterdam that their relationship disintegrated.

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Koeman's role was to coach the first team, while Van Gaal was given responsibility for handling transfers, talking to agents and negotiating with clubs. 

On deadline day in 2004, Van Gaal accepted a bid from Juventus for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, leaving Ajax with no time to replace their best player.

According to Dutch football expert Elko Born, it was the beginning of the end.

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Koeman was livid. Sure, it was Van Gaal’s job to handle the transfers. But to sell Ajax’s star player on deadline day without consulting the first team’s manager? 

Who was going to replace Zlatan? Who was going to score the goals for him now? How was Koeman supposed to improve Ajax now they had lost their best player?

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There were also suggestions that Van Gaal had been keen to exert his influence over training sessions and tactics, supposedly the remit of Koeman.

Anyone who has heard Van Gaal talk about coaching, his methods and his philosophy will tell you that's easy to believe. At one dinner with Bryan Robson in Washington, D.C. during United's 2014 summer tour, Van Gaal used the salt and pepper pots on the table to talk the former England captain through his thoughts on different systems.

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In the end, Koeman won the power struggle at Ajax and Van Gaal left the club in October 2004, having lasted just a year in the job. Koeman, however, didn't last much longer and was sacked in February 2005 after a poor run of results.

The pair might not have got on at Ajax, but there is still a grudging respect between the two. Van Gaal's 3-5-2, which worked so well for the Netherlands at the World Cup, was partly inspired by Koeman's success with the system at Feyenoord, as Van Gaal tried to compensate for the loss of Kevin Strootman.

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Van Gaal took five Feyenoord players to Brazil, and part of his thinking was that they were already familiar with what can be a very complicated system to understand. It paid off, and the Netherlands exceeded expectations to finish third.

There are unlikely to be any fireworks on Monday night—at least not on the touchline. If anything, the feud seems to be slowly thawing. Although that was before they both took jobs in the Premier League and began fighting it out for a place in the top four.

Yet, their history means there will be a little more than three points on offer at St Mary's. Even if neither really want to admit it.