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Sergio Romero loves Louis van Gaal so much that he was once quite literally prepared to smash through a brick wall for the man he regards as his second father.

Romero, the Argentine keeper who has replaced David De Gea in Manchester United’s team for the first two games of the Premier League season, became so enraged after making the mistake that saw Van Gaal’s AZ Alkmaar team knocked out of the Dutch Cup that he punched a dressing-room wall.

His anger left him with a hand so badly broken that he missed the climax of his club’s incredible 2009 Eredivisie title triumph.

Van Gaal branded Romero a fool. But that didn’t prevent the United boss from asking the 28-year-old if he was interested in a mutual rescue mission when De Gea’s refusal to sign a new contract began to give United a problem earlier this summer.

“I am back with my old manager and I am so happy,” said Romero.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

“I owe Louis van Gaal so much. I will tell you what I told the boss the first time we worked together: that when you have an Argentine in your team, you get a never-give-up mentality.

“I find it incredible that I am now at this club after the year that I have had. I wasn’t wanted anywhere else, but I am coming towards the strongest and best part of my football life.”

When Van Gaal took Romero to Alkmaar in 2007, he had a rule at the club that the players could only talk Dutch. It was then that the keeper discovered a side to the disciplinarian Dutchman that will surprise many.

(Image: Michael Regan)

Romero recalled: “I was told that Van Gaal only allowed the players to speak Dutch – and that the rule was not broken for anyone.

“I felt as if I had arrived in a complete new world in Holland. I’d spent my entire youth with my first club, Racing Club in Argentina.

“But then I found out that the coach was not as hard as everyone had said.

“He helped me by speaking to me in Spanish every day, talking in a very quiet voice so that the other players could not hear him and know that he had broken his own rule. That was a warm, human touch.

(Image: John Peters)

“He helped me through the ­difficult days in my new life.”

Eight years on and the pair teamed up again. Van Gaal’s search for a keeper made him realise that Romero was a free agent after having played just a handful of games in the previous two seasons with ­Sampdoria and Monaco.

The Dutchman was shocked – just 12 months earlier, key Romero’s saves had taken ­Argentina to the World Cup Final at the expense of LVG’s own Holland side. Romero, who helped his country reach the Copa America Final in Chile last month, said: “It’s perfect that I am back with my old manager. It makes me emotional.

(Image: FIFA via Getty)

“It was Van Gaal who made me an international player.

“I will never forget the morning he told me that he had been speaking on the telephone to a certain Mr Maradona and that the coach of Argentina wanted to select me.

“I now want to make him proud again after the crisis of what happened to my hand in Alkmaar.

“I am so proud of where I stand today. My wife and my two kids are so proud. And I know for sure that my father, who is in heaven, is also proud.”

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