Louis van Gaal revealed that an envious Jose Mourinho congratulated him after landing the Manchester United managerial job.

The 62-year-old was officially named as United’s replacement for David Moyes on Monday and, speaking to a Dutch chat show, he said the Chelsea boss was jealous of his list of clubs having previously managed Barcelona, Bayern Munich Ajax and Holland.

Van Gaal said: ‘Mourinho congratulated me. He was the first one I texted and he was the first one to text me back. He said he was jealous of my list of clubs.

‘I didn’t call Manchester United, I didn’t call Bayern Munich, they’ve always called me. And I’m proud of that.’

The Dutchman is also relishing the challenge of taking Manchester United back to the top of English football where Sir Alex Ferguson left them after a dismal campaign under Moyes saw them finish seventh in the Premier League.

He said: ‘The aim is to bring them (United) back to the No 1 position as soon as possible because that is where they were under Sir Alex Ferguson.

‘I’ll undoubtedly have a drink with Ferguson. We’ve done that before and we like each other.

‘United is the biggest club in the world marketing-wise. But, also, if you look at their budget, they have to finish high.’

Van Gaal will be given £200m to overhaul United’s squad this summer.

United have been linked with the likes of Arjen Robben, Cesc Fabregas and Luke Shaw and Van Gaal is hopeful he is able to land his No 1 transfer targets.

He also revealed that he was close considering retirement before the United offer came up.

‘We don’t talk about money, we talk about the players I want,’ Van Gaal said. ‘We’ll have to see if we can get them. We also talked about who can go.

‘It was retirement, or going to England. My wife Truus wanted me to retire but now we’re going to England.’

—Daily Mail