Given the chance to turn back the clock, Manchester United probably wouldn’t have appointed Louis van Gaal as David Moyes’ successor.

Although his Netherlands side had impressed at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, the experienced coach’s best days appeared to be behind him.

Van Gaal hadn’t worked in club football since 2011, when he was sacked by Bayern Munich, and some people questioned whether the game had passed him by.

That didn’t stop United from handing the charismatic Dutchman a three-year contract following Moyes’s disastrous season in charge at Old Trafford.

But while he may have won the FA Cup in his last ever game in charge of the Red Devils, United fans will remember Van Gaal for two things above anything else: his craziness and his mind-numbingly boring style of football.

Watching United under Sir Alex Ferguson was often a real pleasure; under Van Gaal it felt like a chore.

Van Gaal's transfer activity at United wasn't great

Van Gaal also made a series of bizarre decisions in the transfer market. Even on the rare occasions he got it right, he ended up messing it up.

In Angel di Maria, United signed a player of genuine world-class quality, but Van Gaal couldn’t work out how to bring the best out of the Argentina international and eventually sold him after just one season.

The Van Gaal decision that stunned Ferguson

However, it was another transfer decision that is understood to have stunned Ferguson.

According to Northern Ireland’s head coach Michael O’Neill, Fergie couldn’t believe that Van Gaal had sold Jonny Evans to West Brom in 2015.

Evans came through the youth academy at Old Trafford and featured regularly under Ferguson before the legendary Scottish coach retried in 2013.

"In September after last year's Euros, there was a conference in France for the coaches and Sir Alex was there talking about it and he openly said to me that he could not believe Van Gaal had sold Jonny from United," O'Neill is quoted as saying by the Belfast Telegraph, per the Manchester Evening News. "Because having seen him come through, he felt Jonny would spend his whole career at United or certainly to the latter stages of his career.

"I think there were a lot of factors why he ended up at West Brom. In the previous two years he had an injury and at Manchester United they had Ferdinand and Vidic and then Jonny and there was a succession plan that didn't happen because of the change in manager.

"At that time he was on the radar of other big clubs. I know that for a fact but they possibly had reservations about him because of the injuries he had and because he maybe hadn't played as much in the previous 18 months. That was just unfortunate."

Evans was sold for just £6m

That Van Gaal sold Evans for a paltry £6 million must have further confused Ferguson.

The Northern Ireland international was a useful and popular member of the United squad - and had Van Gaal not be appointed, there’s every chance he’d still be plying his trade at Old Trafford today.