REVEALED: The real cost if Man Utd want Van Gaal out

The end may well be nigh for Louis van Gaal, with Saturday's atrocious 1-0 home loss to Southampton having left the Manchester United manager perilously close to the end of his spell at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal's side have recorded only two league victories in two months, while the standard of their attacking play has angered supporters so much that the defeat at the weekend was met with the kind of derision not seen at the Theatre of Dreams in decades.

"Of course I'm disappointed, but I have to think already how can we change this," said Van Gaal after the the club's latest Premier League defeat.

"It is not an easy job at the moment, because although we have won three games and drawn one in 2016 before this one, we could not show that confidence in this game."

The weight of popular opinion now suggests that confidence in the Dutchman is waning rapidly as a result of United's ineptitude on the pitch, but the possible off-field impact of Van Gaal being shown the door could be costly enough that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and the club will be left thinking twice about their next step.