The goal of this thread is to get all predictions, both silly and serious, out of every post about Van Gaal leaving and Mourinho arriving. Post in this thread your predictions for the future, so that some day when the inevitably come true you can reap the "I told you so's". I'll start with mine.

Mourinho will come in signing a couple big name players in his wake. He'll also have some young players follow him, but perhaps not the most well known ones. He will bring the club immediate success in the next three seasons, but alienate a few of the young players who came up under Van Gaal (Memphis and Lingard I'm looking at you). The lesser known wonderkids Mourinho brings will jell perfectly with the ones Van Gaal has brought us. The initial success will jade the fans and make us believe the dynasty has returned. We'll have one terrible season after a period of great success like Chelsea has had and the world will call for Mourinho's head. He will leave in a blaze of glory with senior players doubting his antics and we will be on the hunt again for new management. The initial reaction from the media and fans will be disappointment in the players. The reaction will, unsurprisingly, be completely opposite to the sentiments echoed towards the end of the season that blamed Mourinho, but the truth will be that asking a mercenary to become a talisman figure like SAF was never going to happen. The club will be left in lurch having failed to re-establish any plan for long term success in exchange for short-term glory.

I thought Van Gaal was the wrong choice from the get-go; however, not only was I not displeased with the way he had the squad playing, I was thrilled. The key problem with Van Gaal was that everyone knew he was going to retire. Even if that was always in the cards he should have kept silent to avoid undue pressure.

As to his stylistic choices, I believe the genre of football required is not defined by the club for which it is played. The style of a team should always be a combination of the manager's area of expertise and the players' best abilities. To analyze what SAF did in a cursory manner would be inappropriate, but I believe he was an exceptional reader of men. He knew what he could get from the players at hand and the types of players he wanted for the future. Call Van Gaal boring and you will not be incorrect, but he realized that we had an under appreciated asset in Chris Smalling and built a defense that performed incredibly well around Chris and Dave. He felt that we had limited attacking options and instead brought through youth that performed exceptionally via a mixture of talent and the promise of playing time in the wake of senior members of the squad ahead of them. Never underestimate the power of confidence and a self-determined young player with no senior player to scare him out of his position. I believe that had Van Gaal decided from the beginning he wasn't going to retire and pledged a longer term to this project he would still be our manager. Although I am not in any way sure he could have built a dynasty, I am sure he made a mistake in announcing his retirement 2-3 years early.

I am not old enough to have had the privilege of watching the Manchester United greats of our history play. I fell in love with the club as a young ginger kid from London with a British accent, but American parents, who idolized Wayne Rooney. Correct me if I am wrong, but this beautiful brand of attacking football was as much a part of Sir Alex Ferguson as it was Manchester United. If the board wanted more attacking football all the time they should have hired a manager who exclusively played attacking football. They should have only considered that type of manager almost regardless of their resume. I feel that the club has acted like a spoiled child who gets a bright red Ferrari for Christmas one year (SAF), puts the beautiful car in a museum after driving it all the way through college and then acts as if another one will appear out of thin air. You don't go hiring a manager who's promised his wife he'll retire soon and expect him to guarantee you top 4 three years running. Don't get me wrong, financially the fans should expect to never again be anything but one of the richest clubs in the world, but to ask, or even expect, another red Ferrari to fall into our laps every time we pick a new scapegoat is laughable. We need to accept a modicum of failure that we are not used to, say 5-7 years of in and out of the Champions League, and give a manager a real chance. Hell, let it be Mourinho if they think he can re-write the past and be a dynasty builder instead of a high-end mercenary, I'd love to see him try. I'll be much happier if he gets 6 years at the club and only three have Champions League football than if they give him two and we are right back to square 1 again. End of Rant.