The chatter will not be stopped by stern looks or rebukes from ‘King Louis’. Ancelotti is unemployed. Gary Neville has taken up a head coaching role at Valencia and could conceivably return as early as late summer to work with Giggs, who has maintained a diplomatic silence through Van Gaal’s 18 months in charge. The Scholes, Rio Ferdinand generation, though, are clearly fuming about United’s slide into torpor. To be dull at home and also-rans in Europe is not a manifesto that will endear Van Gaal to the many Ferguson-era legends, who can all comment from a background of success.