Despite "LVG" leading the club to their first FA Cup triumph since 2004 with a narrow extra-time victory over Crystal Palace at Wembley at the weekend, a decision was taken after another underwhelming Premier League campaign during which the 20-time champions only briefly threatened to overhaul Man City before crossing the finishing line in fifth.
With the dust now settling on Van Gaal's limp tenure and the hugely successful, if persistently volatile, Jose Mourinho waiting in the wings after years of publicly courting the Man United hot seat, just how did Van Gaal come to be so unpopular at Old Trafford? IBTimes UK takes a look at where it all went wrong.
Turgid Adopted playing style
This is rather stating the obvious, but the key issue that led to the stubborn Van Gaal's demise was a thoroughly tedious style of football and an apparent reluctance to deviate from his established "philosophy".
Favouring a monotonous system involving plenty of stale possession that seemed to curb any attacking instincts, he presided over a succession of exceedingly dull performances that saw United end the season with their second-lowest Premier League points tally and a club record for the fewest goals scored (as per Sky Sports).
These chronic problems in front of goal particularly manifested themselves on home soil, where the club scored only 27 times in 2015-16 and routinely struggled to make any real first-half impact.
Having already endured David Moyes' unsuccessful 10-month stint in charge, this struggle to create chances angered an entitled fanbase that had grown accustomed to Sir Alex Ferguson's imposing and wildly successful system that was famous for its effectiveness, flexibility, goals and exciting late drama.
Transfer policy
Despite frequent criticisms regarding the questionable transfer prowess of executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, Van Gaal cannot use a lack of financial backing as mitigating circumstances for his failure to succeed.
After being named as David Moyes' permanent successor in May 2014 following the interim reign of future assistant Ryan Giggs, he was permitted to lavish in excess of £250m ($363m) on new signings in order to develop an admittedly average playing squad as he saw fit.
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