LOUIS VAN GAAL walked out of his weekly press conference this afternoon after demanding an apology from the assembled media after reports suggested he was set to be sacked.
The Man United manager has come under increasing pressure since Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Norwich City, with stories suggesting that the Old Trafford hierarchy had sounded out Jose Mourinho as a possible replacement.
Here, we look at three other famous press conferences where manager’s blew a fuse.
Love it, Keegan
Not strictly a press conference, but Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan’s famous post-match TV rant at Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has gone down in Premier League folklore.
In the 1996/1996 season, as Newcastle’s title challenge imploded, Keegan was furious at Ferguson’s view that other teams weren’t trying as hard against Newcastle as they were against the Old Trafford giants.
“When you do that with footballers like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce…
“I’ve kept really quiet but I’ll tell you something, he went down in my estimations when he said that. We have not resorted to that. You can tell him now, we’re still fighting for this title and he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something.
“And I’ll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.
“But it really has got to me. I’ve voiced it live, not in front of the press or anywhere. I’m not even going to the press conference. But the battle is still on and Man United have not won this yet.”
United won the title by four points.
Bird man Pearson
Former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson accused a journalist of being “an ostrich” during a peculiar tirade following his side’s 3-1 Premier League loss to Chelsea in April.
Ian Baker, who was covering the game for AFP, asked Pearson to elaborate after he told his post-match press conference that his players had had to deal with “criticism and negativity”.
“Have you been on holiday for six months? Have you been away for six months?” responded Pearson.
“I think you must have either your head in the clouds, or been away on holiday, or reporting on a different team, because if you don’t know the answer to that question… if you don’t know the answer to that question then I think you are an ostrich.
“Your head must be in the sand. Is your head in the sand? Are you flexible enough to get your head in the sand? My suspicion would be no. I can, you can’t.”
No way on Jose, says Wenger
Arsene Wenger launched a scathing attack on Arsenal’s “boring” critics and threatened to walk out of a press conference when questioned about Jose Mourinho.
Wenger’s side suffered an embarrassing 3-2 defeat at home to Olympiakos in the Champions League in October with ex-Manchester United captain Roy Keane labeling the team as weak and soft.
“You come to the game, you judge the game and you assess if I am right or wrong. I never critiqued that, I accept your judgement of how the team played and your assessment, but I don’t have to give you all the information I have to make my decisions,” Wenger told reporters.
When pressed to respond to the comments of then Chelsea boss Mourinho that there was only one manager in the Premier League not under pressure, Wenger curtly replied: “Look, stop that story or we stop the press conference.”
“I think you lack a bit of creativity in the press at the moment, that you follow a bandwagon that is very, very, very, very boring. I don’t go along with that.”
