Louis van Gaal has revealed that he is ably assisted by so many people at Manchester United it gives him nothing to do.
The Dutchman had a solid start to life at United leading them back into the Champions League last season.
They currently occupy 4th spot in the Premier League this term but United are just two points adrift of joint leaders Manchester City and Arsenal.
Van Gaal believes the role of the coach has changed since he first stepped into the dugout at Ajax in 1991, joking that he does not have to do much work for his hefty pay cheque.
“I'm from a time when the coach did everything” - van Gaal said in an interview with The Telegraph.
“Now I'm the manager and I have a sports science department, I have a scouting department, I have a medical department, I have assistant managers, I have assistant coaches!”
"I don't do anything... nothing! I delegate. I delegate, and I earn a lot of money."
The Dutchman says his primary focus is on educating players, leaving development of their skills and fitness to other members of his staff.
“When you see my press conferences, I'm discussing my philosophy a lot,” van Gaal added.
“Sometimes, the media is not very proud of it. But, sometimes, they are crazy for it because I explain a lot.”
“It takes always a little bit of time to transfer the message. I'm training in the brain - a lot of things in the brain - because football is not a sport of legs, it is a sport of brain, and tactics.”
“All the players have to sustain that process and that's not easy. Praise is better than to be negative, it is true. But, sometimes, I'm sorry, you have to be negative also.”
The Manchester United manager was also quick to downplay suggestions that he sets his teams out to defend, a criticism levelled at him by red devils legend Paul Scholes.
“We didn’t have any money and we were bankrupt (at Ajax), so I had to look to youth. We scouted Jari Litmanen, a Finnish player, who we bought for £10,000.”
“We also bought Finidi George. He was a Nigerian international. He was £3,000. I paid it by myself! And then, we bought Marc Overmars”
“But the names that people remember are Clarance Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Michael Reiziger.”
“We won everything with very attacking football. I don’t say it too much because otherwise Mr Scholes will be very angry.”
