"?If reports from Spain earlier on Saturday are to be believed, Louis van Gaal is to be put out of his job before the FA Cup final celebrations are even finished. By the time you read this, it may or may not have happened - just after the conclusion of his single greatest moment at the club.
Jesse Lingard hammering home in extra time showcased on the biggest stage exactly how much Van Gaal's faith in the squad's young players has been worth this season, where under another, equally controversial Portuguese manager, the relatively inexperienced 23-year-old would never have got near the squad.
Pick that out! Jesse Lingard with a sensational right-foot volley! #FACupFinal https://t.co/JpD9TNq0St
For all of Van Gaal's failings at Old Trafford, his willingness to give young players their chance has laid the groundwork for a number of genuine future stars to come through. He may have had his hand forced by injury in some cases - there are a handful of full-backs with unlikely first team debuts - but that effect may have been overstated.
The comparisons to Jose Mourinho are inevitable at this stage, so we may as well just dive straight in. Marcus Rashford would not have started a game under Mourinho. Lingard would almost certainly not have been given the number of opportunities to impress. Cameron Borthwick-Who? Timothy Eh-What?
Talking about what Mourinho would have done is speculation, but it's well-founded. This very season when, at Chelsea, he was without Diego Costa, Loic Remy and Radamel Falcao? He ignored Bertrand Traore, a young striker with a much bigger reputation than Rashford's, choosing to play noted non-striker Eden Hazard through the middle instead.
Jesse Lingard makes it sound so simple... #MUFC #FACupFinal #bbcfacup https://t.co/ruu5tEkzl3
That's why Saturday's win at Wembley is something of a justification for Van Gaal and his time at the club. Left with a rank shell of a squad, packed with has-beens and never-weres along with three or four genuinely class players, he now has two of the Premier League's most exciting attackers in tandem up front - Anthony Martial and Rashford, with a combined age of 38.
It's not just an approach for the future, it's won him and the club an FA Cup title in the here and now. With a slightly less disastrous set of injuries earlier in the season, top four qualification was well within reach.
Whether he exits in a few hours, days, weeks or at the end of his contract next summer, Van Gaal and his faith in the likes of Rashford and Lingard has left the United squad in a healthier state than he found it. That impact shouldn't be underestimated.
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