Louis van Gaal’s unveiling as Manchester United’s second new manager in a little over a year took place in the same room as the installation of his predecessor, although things have changed quite a bit since David Moyes was given a club jacket and tie and sent smiling into his season-long funeral.

The former Holland manager smiled a lot, too, sometimes breaking into a grin, sometimes even laughing at his own jokes but the emphasis was totally different. Van Gaal has an impeccable track record: a Champions League win with Ajax and titles in Germany and Spain were what sold him to United even before that eye-catching performance in Brazil, and the 62-year-old could afford to look pleased with himself.

It was he who was doing United the favour, not the other way around. Only a few months ago he was looking to line himself up with a post-World Cup job at Tottenham, now he is King Louis of Manchester, ruler of all he surveys.

After 10 years at Everton Moyes did not need any introduction at Old Trafford, so he did not get one. King Louis got the works. Perhaps in symbolic recognition of their back-to-front mistake a year ago, United went to the considerable trouble of turning the whole room around to accommodate Van Gaal, who was ushered in by Sir Bobby Charlton and shown a seat behind a gleaming new desk.

Behind him, for the benefit of all the photographers, a version of Van Gaal the club had prepared earlier appeared in inspiring pose in a background montage. Pictured in front of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, no less, flanked by new signings Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera as well as Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, Van Gaal gazed heroically upwards into the middle distance in the manner of a sovereign depicted on a banknote.

Moyes never had any of that and neither did the currency of his managerial career lend itself to a five-minute video compilation of his previous triumphs such as the one United played by way of welcome. Clarence Seedorf, Gianfranco Zola and Ronald de Boer, among others, attested to what a capable manager United were getting themselves but although the video showed a clip of Van Gaal with Ferguson, there were no words of commendation from the latter.

No matter, Van Gaal proved more than capable of recommending himself. “When you look at my career you can see what I have won,” he said. “I cannot give predictions because in football you never know but I think I can live up to all the expectations of me. How soon we achieve success depends on how quickly the players pick up my philosophy.”

Van Gaal already appears to be imbibing the new United philosophy. Unbidden, he mentioned the importance of the club’s sponsors on several occasions, in-between thanking Ed Woodward, Sir Alex and Sir Bobby for their confidence. He did not mention them by name – at the rate the club have been accruing official partners in the past 12 months that might have taken him all day – but he is clearly brand aware. When he was at Barcelona the club did not even have a sponsor’s logo on their shirts and when he was at Bayern the club’s status as richest in Germany was almost a given, but he seems ready to toe the corporate line at United in recognition of the fact that getting ahead financially has already made up for much of the revenue lost by finishing outside the European positions last season.

United are presently milking their brand for all it is worth and Van Gaal, in the sense that he is an accepted super coach, a name that any agent in the world would be happy to pick up the telephone and talk business with, is a part of that strategy. The Dutchman knows how to play the game.

“This is the biggest club in the world,” he said, before being reminded that Barcelona and Bayern might take exception to that. “I mean it is the best known around the world,” he corrected himself. “Last season United were seventh, so it is not the biggest club at the moment but I like to think of it as the No1 in England. I also like to think that Barcelona is the number one club in Spain, as is Bayern in Germany and Ajax in Holland. Those are the four top leagues, in my opinion, and to be invited to coach at the four number ones make me very proud.”

This time last year it was Moyes who was the proudest man in Manchester but although it seems cruel to state the obvious, Van Gaal might have a tad more to be proud about. Ferguson’s well-intentioned but fatally flawed plan for the succession will now be forgotten as quickly as possible. As far as United are concerned, they are already back in the big league with a big-hitter in charge.

That is why Van Gaal’s busy first two days in Manchester felt more like a state visit than a mere change of personnel. For while Van Gaal does happen to be United’s third manager in 18 months, he is also only the club’s third manager in 28 years. If United are the No1 club in England, they have achieved that position within the past couple of decades and this is their first stab at appointing a commensurately high-profile manager.

At the moment Van Gaal’s successful World Cup is making United look wise and far-sighted; supporters of the club cannot help but be excited. Climbing the Premier League from seventh might be more of a challenge, yet if Van Gaal and Van Persie can get off to the sort of flyer that Holland managed in Brazil, excitement at least could be about to make a welcome return to Old Trafford.