Graziano Pelle joined AZ Alkmaar from Lecce, the club he had signed for as a young boy, because of the promise of giving young at chance. Louis van Gaal convinced the 22-year-old that the Dutch club was on the one for him.

Pelle has today sung the praises of his former manager, whilst admitting that Van Gaal frustrated him at times.

“Sometimes he drove me crazy. He just kept talking!” said Pelle. “But yes, Louis van Gaal is as good as he thinks he is… I have never met a coach who was so sharp on details. He made me a better player.”

Pelle is in the top ten scorers in the league this season after signing for Ronaldo Koeman’s Southampton and Van Gaal is not surprised.

“I am not surprised because I bought him at AZ as he was an attacking point,” he said. “I’ve said about Van Persie that I like strikers who are an attacking point, not only a striker who scores goals. He is also very creative. He is always seeing the third man. Van Persie is also always seeing the third man. Those kind of strikers are the ones I like. So it is not surprising. It may be surprising that he scores nine goals – that is a lot – but he can do it. I knew that. I had Shota Arveladze, one of the best strikers I have trained in my career. I have trained a lot of strikers but he was one of the best and he had to compete with him. So that was not so easy for him but later on he came in the squad and showed his capacity but later on he showed that much more and when Koeman bought him – because he was also manager of AZ – he took him with him to Feyenoord and he explodes. It is fantastic for him.”