The low chant of ‘Ruud’ rang out across Old Trafford and the man in question stood outside the Stretford End, arms raised, discovering the swan song he had always been denied.
It was fitting that the League Cup had provided this. On the night of October 30, 2024, Ruud van Nistelrooy was able to erase the memory of February 26, 2006, when his absence from the then Carling Cup final – amid his escalating dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson – marked the end of an extraordinary five matches. years at the club.
At the time, Van Nistelrooy had felt that United were stagnating and would not win anything – as Ferguson later said – with young players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. When Ferguson informed him that he would not appear from the bench in the final against Wigan Athletic in Cardiff, he exploded and insulted him. “That was the end of him,” Ferguson wrote in his memoir. ‘I knew we would never get him back. He had burned his boats.’ After scoring 150 goals in 219 games, van Nistelrooy was sold to Real Madrid.
The Dutchman has always regretted it. Ferguson, who devoted a chapter of his memoir to him — a signal of his significance before things took a turn for the worse — described receiving a phone call from him at home four years later on a snowy January evening, simply wanting to apologize. “Ruud gave no explanation,” Ferguson writes. ‘Maybe I should have taken the opportunity to say, ‘Why did it happen this way?’
Perhaps because Van Nistelrooy did not see the value of being part of the institution that is United at the time. In retrospect, he certainly does. That is clear from his description of how he responded in June to a phone call from United’s owners asking him to return to assist his compatriot Erik ten Hag.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was serenaded by the crowd at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening
He finally gets his United swan song after abruptly leaving the club following a falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2006
Erik ten Hag was clumsy and stiff, but Van Nistelrooy is very different
Van Nistelrooy told Algemeen Dagblad about that phone call in an interview published this week. “Someone informally tested the water. “Would you perhaps be open to…?” Back to United. Wow! That hadn’t occurred to me. I was completely focused on being back on the sidelines as a manager.’
There was electricity on Wednesday night as he walked into the stadium and immediately turned to acknowledge the Stretford End and deliver a defiant punch. It was the benchmark of a man who knows what makes Old Trafford tick – loves the bones of the city – in a way that the more clumsy, stiff Ten Hag – always rushing past the Stretford End – never did.
Van Nistelrooy provided a much more impressive physical presence on the touchline, not deviating from it throughout. He looked good. His attire – turtleneck and trench coat – conveyed the message that even a Carabao Cup quarter-final against a weakened Leicester City is a night of significance for this great club.
It’s hard to read too much into the 5-2 win, apart from the fact that many players looked like they were playing in freedom again. Allowing Leicester two goals was a reminder of the weaknesses that blighted Ten Hag’s time at the club.
For perspective, it should be said that Ryan Giggs also had his first game as interim manager, suggesting that a permanent future in Ferguson’s place could well be his.
That was April 27, 2014 – another of many milestones on United’s miserable path to reviving past glory – when his side defeated Norwich City 4-0 at Old Trafford. After an indifferent first half, Giggs gave a pep talk. “I just said: speed up the pace and you’ll be fine,” he said after the match.
By the end of the match, he and Paul Scholes, next to him in the dugout that day, were taking turns ‘waving us’, and Ferguson’s claim that his former winger should be given the job permanently was starting to make sense . feeling. Instead, United turned to Louis van Gaal and in 2016, following the appointment of Jose Mourinho, Giggs left.
Van Nistelrooy was an animated and impressive figure on the sidelines on Wednesday
Ryan Giggs also won his first game as interim boss in 2014, but Van Nistelrooy is not the rookie his former teammate was
Van Nistelrooy’s swan song will continue for three more games before Ruben Amorim is expected to become United’s next permanent manager
Van Nistelrooy is not the novice coach that Giggs was. It is thought he was offered the job at Burnley this summer, after having a profile similar to Vincent Kompany’s for Turf Moor, and turned it down. The Lancashire club have always said Scott Parker was their first choice, although van Nistelrooy suggested during the pre-season tour with United this summer that the Burnley position was one of the options available to him.
Van Nistelrooy’s United swan song appears to be short-lived, with three more games against Chelsea, PAOK Salonika and then Leicester in the league before Portuguese Ruben Amorim arrives. Whether the 48-year-old is part of that future – which he expressed his wish for on Wednesday evening – remains to be seen. But he has found the redemption and circularity he was looking for. He reminded on Wednesday evening that great things can still happen at Old Trafford.