Louis van Gaal: Dutchman arrives at Manchester United training ground after snubbing holiday

Van Gaal has only just returned from the World Cup in Brazil

Louis van Gaal at United's training ground today alongside assistant manager Ryan Giggs and vice-chairman Ed Woodward (twitter.com/ManUtd)

Louis van Gaal has arrived at Manchester United's training complex, where he is meeting his players and staff.

Van Gaal decided against taking a holiday after guiding the Netherlands to third place at the World Cup and will instead throw himself into United life, meeting those players who are not on a post World Cup break as well as club staff.

The 62-year-old, United's first manager from outside the British Isles, will have no time to ease himself in.

On Thursday he will be officially presented at a press conference at 3pm, before jetting off to the USA on Friday for the club's pre-season tour.

United will then play matches against Los Angeles Galaxy, Roma, Internazionale and Real Madrid before beginning their Premier League campaign at home to Swansea City on 16 August.

Van Gaal had previously said that he hopes his United players follow the example of his Netherlands side who impressed at the World Cup.

"I hope my new group in Manchester will be just like this one," he said earlier this week. "We set an objective and we believed in that objective. We wanted first place.

"And really we were very, very close to doing that - only penalties stopped us.

"Not to be able to achieve that objective was so disappointing but we won third place, we got a medal which is fantastic."