Louis van Gaal Wants Manchester United Deal Finalised this Week

Louis van Gaal is keen to sign a deal with Manchester United this week before he officially begins his duties with the Dutch national team on 7 May, reports in Holland suggest.

The former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has been made the overwhelming favourite to replace David Moyes on a permanent basis but reports of a done deal were denied by the club during the weekend.

Dutch daily De Telegraaf however suggest there is a verbal agreement in place between van Gaal and United with an official announcement of his appointment expected before the weekend.

The coach will begin his preparations for the World Cup campaign next week in Hoenderloo with players from Holland's domestic league before foreign based stars link up ahead of their first warm up match against Ecuador on 17 May.

Reports suggest both United and van Gaal are hopeful of a deal being concluded before then.

Hours after the club denied reports of an agreement with the Dutch coach on Saturday, Ryan Giggs got his tenure as United's interim manager off to a winning start win a 4-0 win over Norwich City.

But amid speculation surrounding the future of the club Giggs would not be drawn on plans to name Moyes' successor and will focus solely on the remaining three games of the season.

"It's not something that I'm thinking of at the moment. "It's just these four games," Giggs told Sky Sports. "It's taken so much out of me this week that I haven't really had time to look too far into the future. My job now is to get the players ready for Sunderland.

"They (United) have just said to me, 'You've got the job for four games.' That's one down, three to go.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's where my concentration is. I'll do the job to the best of my ability and then after that we'll just have to wait and see what happens."