Louis van Gaal stands on the brink of his first Barclays Premier League campaign eight months after standing to deliver a speech at the Savoy in honour of Jose Mourinho and embarking upon a largely unquotable ramble about the time he replaced Bobby Robson at Barcelona.

Van Gaal flirted with self-aggrandisement at the football writers’ Gala Night – his audience would have been disappointed had he not - and then rescued it by delivering a decent punch-line.

Mourinho turned out to be better than him after all, he shrugged, with reference to 2010 when Inter beat Bayern in the Champions League final, but this was the Dutchman’s marker down in London at the start of a year when he would descend upon England.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch Louis van Gaal's piers and prodigies thoughts of the Iron Tulip

Light touch: Louis van Gaal will attempt to lift the gloom which has enveloped Old Trafford in the past year

Casting a shadow: Sir Alex Ferguson (centre) will be looming in the stands but Van Gaal should handle it

At the time he was the manager of Holland and happy to be heavily linked with Tottenham but Old Trafford was his ultimate destination and hidden within that speech in January were the clues to his style and his confidence inside big clubs.

Not a success: David Moyes tampered with the backroom staff and alienated key players

His meandering story was about how he refused to jettison the wisdom of Robson, so asked to retain him in an advisory 'upstairs' role, and liked what he’d seen of the hot-headed linguist-cum-coach from Portugal, so he kept him close, too.

Yes he can work with Sir Alex Ferguson looming in the stands, if need be. Yes, he will help nurture Ryan Giggs and turn him into a potential successor if that is what he wants. Nicky Butt, why not? Anyone else?

Strange how there seems more continuity to this appointment than when David Moyes arrived last year. Moyes was chosen as the continuity candidate and yet stripped away much of Ferguson’s backroom team and alienated key players.

He is not famed for his human touch but Van Gaal, 63 on Friday, has the experience and faith in his own ability not to fear those around him or fret when all eyes turn his way, as they do now. Can he lead United from their post-Fergie gloom?

Some things have fallen kindly. There will be no European football, so the main target is clear. Expect snide remarks from Mourinho about United 'on holiday'. It was his favourite line about Liverpool last season, but there was probably some truth in it. Time on the training field with your team is a rare commodity for managers in the Premier League.

It helped Brendan Rodgers gate-crash the top four but Liverpool no longer have Luis Suarez, their inspiration and 31-goal leading scorer.

Like Moyes, he starts against Swansea but unlike his predecessor who was pitched against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in his opening five Premier League games, the next four for Van Gaal are against Sunderland, Burnley, Queens Park Rangers and Leicester.

Don’t be good, be lucky. Or be both. For managers, there are good and bad times to arrive at a club.

The minds of all those who matter at Old Trafford from the boardroom to the dressing room, the Stretford End and the television screens in the Far East will have been opened to the idea of major surgery by last season’s strife.

It helped soothe the departures of Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra and it will be interesting to see the extent to which Van Gaal commits to the traditions of United’s high-tempo and fluent attacking style.

Shoulder the responsibility: Van Gaal will need the likes of Wayne Rooney to shine in his new United side

Still, it will not be easy. He will need Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney to shoulder responsibility as he organises the unit behind them and recruits new players with United’s appeal slightly tarnished by their absence from the Champions League.

Liverpool boss Rodgers was quick to issue the warning that the competitive nature and intensity of the English game will be unlike anything else he will have seen, especially during his last couple of years in international football.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, the biggest teams have been bulking up. Liverpool have reinvested the £75million they banked for Suarez and more, while champions Manchester City have quietly strengthened without losing any of their key players.

Bulking up: Javier Manquillo is the latest player to sign for Liverpool following the sale of Luis Suarez

Arsenal have spent freely - the arrival of Alexis Sanchez is one of the most exciting of the summer – and Chelsea have added Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis and Diego Costa, the striker Mourinho so desperately wanted.

Together with Nemanja Matic, signed in January, Chelsea's is starting to look like the archetypal Mourinho team, packed with muscle, cunning and commitment.

Mauricio Pochettino improved Southampton at speed; can he do the same at Tottenham? He may find more resistance to his methods from more established footballers, but there is no reason why he should not.

Spurs have ground to make up on last year’s top four, as do Everton and both these have the Europa League to complicate matters.

Muscling in: Nemanja Matic has added power to Chelsea, now looking like a typical Jose Mourinho team

For Hull City, European football is important to the development of the club and the city but it will not help them in the scrap in the lower reaches with the three promoted teams and those who struggled last season.

After finishing eighth in May, Southampton have been plundered, largely by Liverpool, and must fear the slide towards those in peril. When it is tight, twists of fate will be magnified. Villa were stung by the loss of Christian Benteke, Swansea missed Michu and West Brom could have done without the Nicolas Anelka farce.

Pitfalls await, managers will be chopped and there will be aftershocks (as well as vanishing spray) from the World Cup.

Spurred on: If Mauricio Pochettino improves Tottenham as he did Southampton, they may challenge for fourth

It less than a month since the final and players from Germany, Argentina, Brazil and Holland – of which there are many in the Premier League – played seven games in the tournament, plus warm-up games, not to mention training through May.

Some of these players will break. Some will not. Some clubs will be equipped to cope and adjust and some will not. Some managers will survive the carnage and others will not.

Welcome to England, Louis. Please bring another good punch-line.

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