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Louis van Gaal says his Manchester United sacking felt like a public execution and has accused the club of going behind his back.

Van Gaal was sacked two days after he presided over United's FA Cup final victory over Crystal Palace in May 2016 following months of disenchantment among supporters who bemoaned the turgid style of football, while a section of the United support booed Van Gaal at Wembley.

M.E.N. Sport reported United had opened talks with Jose Mourinho at the start of 2016 and revealed he had reached a gentleman's agreement to replace Van Gaal at the end of the season.

Despite the inevitability of his dismissal, Van Gaal described United's handling of his sacking - which was leaked less than an hour after the FA Cup win - as 'the biggest disappointment of my life'.

"United put my head in a noose and I was publicly placed on the gallows," Van Gaal told the Mirror. "The pressure was enormous with my head in the noose and they went right behind my back. I think it was all orchestrated like a film and it was done very much behind my back right from January.

"My wife, Truus, told me that the attitude of the board had changed. Women have this intuition. They smell it. I denied it, even to my wife, because between me as a manager and the chief executive Ed Woodward, everything was running as normal.

“Suddenly former players started to yap in the media that we were playing boring football and Mourinho's sacking made it very attractive for everyone to keep bashing me.

"I do understand that choice of United to get Mourinho."

Van Gaal signed a three-year contract in 2014 but insists he only wanted to manage United for two years after spending the same amount of time coaching the Netherlands to third place at the World Cup.

United paid out £8.4million to Van Gaal and his coaches after they were sacked and the Dutchman said he used the club's treatment of him to make them 'pay every penny'.

"I never wanted more than two years anyway," Van Gaal added. "Man United wanted three years. Suddenly, Mourinho was out after one-and-a-half years of my contract and I knew United wanted him one day.

"They told me only after it [the decision to sack him] was leaked out and it was the biggest disappointment of my life. United did not discuss this with me. If they had come to me with the Mourinho plan then I could have said 'okay, let's give it everything for the last six months, complete commitment to each other and the team and then Jose Mourinho can take over.'

"They could have saved the last year of my salary by doing that but after what happened I made them pay every penny."

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