Louis van Gaal latest: FA Cup triumph for Manchester United could end Jose Mourinho interest

The Red Devils are now one win away from silverware that could be enough to convince the club to persist with their current manager - unless Mauricio Pochettino makes himself available

Louis van Gaal after Manchester United's FA Cup semi-final win (Getty)

The unbridled delight of those Manchester United supporters who lingered inside Wembley Stadium revealed what an FA Cup final means for a club who have not known one for seven years and not won one for 12. “Yes, I know what it means,” said Louis van Gaal when the dust had settled and someone asked him if he was familiar with the expression ‘Your name’s on the trophy.’

Yet amid the notion of a new Manchester United generation marshalled and guided by Wayne Rooney in the quarterback role – “When I joined the club at 18 Giggsy was about 30 and I saw the help and advice he gave me at that age, so if I can help those young players…” Rooney said on his way out of the stadium – resides an inconvenient truth. It is that winning the FA Cup may mean Manchester United beginning next season with the manager so many of their supporters want out.

If United get a sense that Mauricio Pochettino, yet to sign a new contract at Tottenham, is ready to leave for the biggest job in British football, then victory over Crystal Palace/Watford on May 21 will make no difference. But the Dutchman’s willingness to blood those young players who flourished on Saturday, taken with the return of silverware, ought to be enough to kill off Jose Mourinho’s supplications to manage the side. Few other candidates scream out.

Van Gaal must take some credit for the spectacle of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard working their angles and impudent back-heels at Wembley. And for allowing Rooney his free role. That goes against the Dutchman’s tactical inclinations. “That was a consequence of the position [he played in],” said Van Gaal. But it took Michael Carrick’s sense of perspective to prevent the euphoria becoming a runaway train. “I don’t want to get carried away too much,” he said. “Two weeks ago everything was a disaster and this doesn’t change the whole thing. We know where we’re at as a team and a club. We know we need to improve, of course we do. We need to be right at the top of the league again. That’s not going to change over the next few weeks.”

Mourinho has been tipped to replace Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford (Getty)

The sight of United allowing Everton to come back so strongly that David de Gea’s right glove was required to provide salvation turned the semi-final into United’s season in microcosm: progress, then setback. Van Gaal contributes to the confused pictured by his utterances. On Saturday night, he declared that some of his players were not of the standard he wanted. “We need quick, creative players,” he said. “I’ve said that, also in the transfer period... I have to manage players whose quality is not always what I want.”

(Getty (Getty)

It was an allusion to the world class players he anticipated bringing from Bayern Munich - Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben – who took one look at where United are and told him, "No thanks." The irony of his complaint was not lost. This is the manager who has had more than £250m at his disposal and who, in his infinite wisdom, replaced Angel di Maria with Memphis Depay.

If the United manager’s post-match discussion was an exercise in self-justification, then Roberto Martinez’s was a transparent plea to the club and its new Iranian shareholder Farhad Moshiri not to sack him. “I just want to believe with the work I have done for the last three years there are signs there that we are getting close to challenge for silverware and where Everton should be,” he said. “We gave young players big roles and have not invested money but managed assets.”

Was Martinez sure he would be in place before next weekend’s dead rubber against Bournemouth, whose manager Eddie Howe would be seen by Everton fans as a more promising man for the future? “You’re asking the wrong man, from my point of view,” he replied. Managerial endgames can be excruciating.

Everton’s recovery from a first half evisceration owed something to the Spaniard’s powers of inspiration in the dressing room but some of his justifications on a season which is now over were full of holes. Everton had been “unfairly stopped [from] being in a League Cup final,” he said, harking back to the Manchester City goal supplied from a cross behind the goal-line on January 27. Yet there were four Everton defenders and one City player in the box when that offending cross came in. The same poor defending was in evidence on Saturday.

“The second half was us,” Martinez said. But Everton second halves have frequently involve conceding to the late sucker punch. For United at Wembley, read Bournemouth, Chelsea, Stoke City and West Ham, this season. Flawed, occasionally thrilling, but ultimately ineffective football: that’s Everton. Their manager’s days at the helm certainly seem done.

Martinez understands why supporters have been critical in recent weeks (Getty)

For United, there was contemplation of a new era that the name on the trophy might bring. “That is what we are hoping for,” said Rooney. “We haven't had it easy over the last couple of years so if we win the cup then it will be a huge stepping stone for us.” Carrick reflected. “You can’t explain what winning a trophy brings.” Might they take that first step and yet still part company with their manager? An FA Cup triumph will provoke more questions than answers.