Louis van Gaal has revealed that he has a big fear about retirement.

The United boss will be 64-years-old on the day the new Premier League kicks off on August 8 and will have two years left on his Old Trafford deal.

Whether Van Gaal decides to end his coaching days in 2017 or wants to continue, the thought of just sunning himself leaves a void.

“What I love about my job is that I can communicate with young people,” he told the club website.

“I am an older man and the boys are keeping me young. That is my great fear when I stop my job as a manager and I want to retire and I am lying in the sun but I am not communicating with younger people.

(Image: Action Images / Brandon Parry)

“The best of my job is that I can communicate and I can improve the talents of my players. That gives me a lot of joy.”

But for the moment Van Gaal is readying himself for the Reds pre-season tour of America next month.

“The most important aspect is building up our team with individual players so they are thinking like a team. But also we need fitness and match rhythm and therefore we have to play matches, but we also have to train as well,” he said.

United's 2014 US tour in pictures.

Last July United had a five-match marathon travelling trip that included games against Roma, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Liverpool, plus LA Galaxy. Despite a winning tour it backfired on the Reds.

United returned to England to beat Valencia in an eve of season warm up friendly but were beaten by Swansea at Old Trafford on the opening day.

“When we went to America last year we didn’t have so many times to train because we had to travel a lot.,” he added.

“When you see our results last pre-season in America and we have won everything and we played big top clubs and then we play our first league match against Swansea City. That cannot happen this year.

“The problem was when we went to America we didn’t have so many times to train because we have to fly a lot and travel a lot. Now we have improved our America tour because we have two base camps.

We are on the other coast, temperatures are lower so we can build our fitness better then.

“When you are in the same city you don’t have the time difference problem. Last year a lot of time difficulties so we cannot train properly because your body is not used to the time. It was not good.

“Now there is no time difference worries. We have chosen a hotel nearby the training accommodation so it is more easy to train twice a day and that is very important in pre-season.

“In pre-season you have to make a team. That is dependant on how many new players are coming.”

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