Why Manchester United Should Swap Louis van Gaal for Pep Guardiola Next Summer

It is time Manchester United rectified a mistake they made three years ago.

At the end of 2012, the then-United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, had dinner in New York with Pep Guardiola while he was on his sabbatical, and as he detailed in his recently published book Leading, he heavily hinted to him he would like him to be his successor at Old Trafford.

All along it was Guardiola, winner of two Champions Leagues as manager of Barcelona, not David Moyes who was Ferguson’s first choice to replace him.

“He had already won an enviable number of trophies with Barcelona...and I admired him greatly,” Ferguson wrote, (via the Daily Telegraph). "I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club, but he didn’t and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013.”

When they dined in New York, Ferguson hadn’t decided to retire yet and so could not make a concrete offer.

But here was United’s mistake. They were too casual, too oblique and too reliant on this mere nod and wink when they should have been more explicit.

It is a mistake they have spent the last three years paying for.

The timing was perfect; Guardiola was available and Ferguson knew he was nearing the end, so a deal should have been done.

But by the time Ferguson decided to retire, it was too late, and Guardiola had promised to relocate to Bavaria instead.

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Since then, United have had to watch as Guardiola has won successive Bundesliga titles and looks set to complete a hat-trick this season, while also adding a German Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and a World Club Cup.

All the while, United have toiled trophyless under the disastrous and short reign of Moyes and with the joyless and uninspiring football of Louis van Gaal.

By next summer, the trophy count over the last three years could at the very least have Pep Guardiola with six and Manchester United none.

The botched Ferguson succession continues to plague United, but at the end of last week they appeared to be tentatively offered the chance of redemption.

On Saturday, 24 hours after a report broke on Spanish radio station Cadena Cope (via the Guardian) that Guardiola would leave Bayern Munich for Manchester City next summer, the English press were clearly and obviously briefed that the truth was he would actually prefer to come to Manchester United.

This is not the first time Guardiola has flirted with United, and last year, it was revealed in Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich by Marti Perarnau (via the Daily Telegraph), that in 2011 he sat in the stands at Old Trafford as the manager of Barcelona on a scouting mission and told personal assistant Manel Estiarte, “I like this atmosphere, I could see myself coaching here one day.”

Will that day come as soon as next summer?

By allowing it to be known he would be open to a move to Old Trafford, Guardiola has put the United board in a difficult position.

Do they stick with the solid progress of the Van Gaal regime, or do they pounce for Guardiola, who will be out of contract, next summer?

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Three years ago, they dithered and have regretted it ever since. Now is the time for decisive action; Guardiola should be offered the job.

It might seem harsh on Van Gaal. It might seem like a knee-jerk reaction, ungrateful and even unbecoming of United. But to do nothing would be an even greater mistake, and United have made enough of them.

There is a concern at United that this could be as good as it gets under Van Gaal.

The club are at the right end of the table and even in a genuine title race, but the football on display is so turgid, so unedifying, that no one seems to care.

The boos that echoed around Old Trafford at the end of their goalless draw against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday made for a strange event.

United had not been beaten or humiliated; they had in fact collected a point and are still on course, however narrowly, to qualify for the next round.

But the loud boos were a display of frustration at the football being served up and at what was a fourth goalless draw in the previous seven games in all competitions.

Watching United conjures many emotions, but boredom should never be one of them, and the truth is under Van Gaal they have become boring.

United are devoid of adventure, drained of their normal attacking flair, and the priority is not to be beaten rather than to go forth and win.

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Defenders of Van Gaal, and they have some merit, will argue he is building a solid foundation, making United difficult to beat, before taking the game to the opposition.

This might be so, but it is an increasingly unpopular and untenable approach among United fans, who are the ones forced to watch such dull football.

In the last 18 months, Van Gaal has lifted United out from their Moyes malaise, steadied the club and improved the squad, and while the Dutchman has a contract that runs until 2017, it would be eminently sensible for him and the club to come to an amicable parting a year early next summer.

With United just a point from the top of the table, this might seem panicked and unseemly talk, but Guardiola is too good to let go to another club.

If United don’t engineer a vacancy at Old Trafford, he might instead arrive across town at Manchester City, where it seems they are desperate to give him a new home.

Nothing is certain in football, and Guardiola has never coached in the Premier League, but he brings with him the promise of trophies, stylish football and the ability to work with the biggest names in world football, and luring them to Old Trafford would suddenly become a lot easier.

If Guardiola is keen, it would be negligent of United not to bring him to Old Trafford.