The curtain has finally fallen on Erik ten Hag’s troubled reign at Manchester United and while the rumour mill goes into overdrive looking at any and all possible permanent successors, the job falls in the meantime to club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy.
The Dutchman’s task is tough, but the 48-year-old knows what it takes to survive at Old Trafford. He is the club’s ninth top-scorer with 150 goals, but the speed with which he reached them is part of the reason he is so venerated, reaching the total in just 219 games.
To put that into perspective, Paul Scholes sits in eighth place with 153 goals scored in 713 matches; not for nothing is there a kernel of sincerity amongst fans calling for the Dutchman to spearhead United’s attack this season, which after nine Premier League matches is yet to reach double figures in the competition.
But 21 years, one month and three days after smashing a hat-trick past Leicester City in a 4-1 win at the Walkers Stadium, the Dutchman faces the Foxes again not as a number 9 but as caretaker manager in the upcoming EFL Cup clash at Old Trafford.
The team he inherits is desperately short of form, but by all accounts more than willing to fall in line with Van Nistelrooy as their head coach. Reports earlier this month claimed that players would welcome him as manager should Ten Hag be sacked.
Player relations – the good and the bad
Before the season kicked off, elder statesman Jonny Evans praised the man he “grew up idolising” and said it was “good to have someone of that calibre and respect in the squad”.
More recently, after the win against Brentford earlier this month young striker Rasmus Hojlund referred to Van Nistelrooy as a “role model” and called working with him “a big step”.
The coach has also been closely involved with fellow Dutchman and forward Joshua Zirkzee, who was keen to keep his specialist training “a secret” but did reveal that it was “great”.
And when Marcus Rashford broke his six-month goal drought against Southampton the Dutchman was visibly thrilled, clearly all-too-happy to one day drop a place down the list of all-time United top scorers.
He was also seen motivating Amad Diallo before he came on against Fenerbahce last week, and frequently cuts an animated figure on the touchline, often more so than his now-departed boss.
That’s not to say he’s a light touch – as per The Daily Mail, the Dutchman cut a formidable figure as PSV boss where some players held “grave concerns” about his management. Time will tell whether Van Nistelrooy sours the mood at Old Trafford, but the signs are nothing but good at the Theatre of Dreams so far.
An icon at two giants despite Fergie fallout
Van Nistelrooy’s arrival at United as a player was protracted, as fitness concerns caused a deal agreed in 2000 to fall through before he eventually arrived from PSV Eindhoven a year later for a British-record fee of £19m.
Sir Alex Ferguson was determined to get his man after the goal machine lit up the Eredivisie in the twilight of the 1990s. He hit 32 goals in 32 games in the 1999/2000 season, an impressive follow-up to an almighty 41 in 46 the year before.
PSV picked a young Van Nistelrooy up from fellow Dutch side Heerenveen who themselves signed him from Dutch minnows Den Bosch, where the wise decision to convert the player from a midfielder to a centre-forward was made.
Fast forward to 2006 and something of an acrimonious exit from United took him to Real Madrid, where he continued to be one of Europe’s top marksmen.
Disagreements with Ferguson only ever ended one way and an ascendent Cristiano Ronaldo was just starting to take the team by storm, so almost out of nowhere the writing appered on the wall.
He departed the Bernabeu with 64 goals and 16 assists in 96 games, establishing himself as a cult hero at a second European giant, before a gentle drop-off took him to retirement via Hamburg and Malaga.
Still early days in the dugout
As caretaker manager his appointment has been sudden, if not totally unexpected, as the trigger was ultimately pulled on Ten Hag with little warning.
Van Nistelrooy returned to United in the summer as part of a coaching reshuffle orchestrated by INEOS which was intended to give the former Ajax manager the best chance possible of succeeding in the Old Trafford dugout.
It also gave the new part-owners an easy stand-in option should he be sacked, as the man who could have been Burnley boss decided to take up the assistant post at United instead.
As Ten Hag found out the hard way, there are few jobs in football as highly-scrutinised as the United hotseat, and while Van Nistelrooy is unproven in a top league he was very successful at PSV Eindhoven. In his first and only season in charge of the first team he won the 2022 Johan Cruyff Shield and 2022-23 KNBV Cup.
He resigned last year citing a lack of support within the club with the team finishing second in the Eredivisie, marking the end of a coaching journey at PSV which saw him in charge of the Under-17s and Under 19s before stepping up to the first team. This was interrupted by a stint as Guus Hiddink’s assistant manager at the 2014 World Cup.
Before winding up as Ten Hag’s number two, Van Nistelrooy took some time out to shadow coaches around the world to learn from them. Amongst others, he absorbed knowledge from former employer Real Madrid and Argentine heavyweights River Plate and Boca Juniors.
It seems that Van Nistelrooy won’t be given the chance to audition for the permanent role at United, with Ruben Amorim looking the most likely candidate, but seeing him in the dugout even once will be special. When he first arrived at United he thought he was being booed by his own fans when his first name boomed out from the Stretford End – this time around, there’ll be no such confusion.
Featured image Eddie Keogh via Getty Images
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