The low chant of ‘Ruud’ sounded out across Old Trafford and the man in question stood in front of the Stretford End, arms aloft, discovering the swansong that had always been denied him.
It was fitting that the League Cup should have provided it. The night of October 30, 2024, allowed Ruud van Nistelrooy to erase the memory of February 26, 2006, when his absence from what was then the Carling Cup final – amid his escalating dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson – signalled the end of an extraordinary five years at the club.
Back then, van Nistelrooy had felt United were stagnating and would win nothing – as Ferguson later told it – with young players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. When Ferguson informed him that he would not be appearing from the bench in that 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’d 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 soured – described receiving a call from him at home, on a snowy January night four years later, in which he simply wanted to apologize. ‘Ruud offered no explanation,’ Ferguson writes. ‘Perhaps I should have taken the chance to say, “Why did it go that way?”’
Perhaps because Van Nistelrooy did not appreciate, at that time, the value of being a part of the institution which United is. He certainly does in retrospect. That much is evident in his description of how he answered a call from United’s owners, in June, asking him to return to assist his compatriot Erik ten Hag.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was serenaded by the Old Trafford crowd on Wednesday night
He is finally getting his United swansong after leaving the club abruptly following a bust-up with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2006
Erik ten Hag was awkward and stiff, but Van Nistelrooy is very different
Van Nistelrooy told Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad about that call in an interview published this week. ‘Someone informally tested the water. ‘Would you possibly be open to…?’ Back to United. Wow! That hadn’t crossed my mind. I was completely focused on getting back on the touchline as a manager.’
There was an electricity on Wednesday night as he strode out into the stadium, immediately turning back to acknowledge the Stretford End and deliver a punch of defiance. It was the measure of a man who knows what makes Old Trafford tick – loves the bones of the place – in a way that the more awkward, stiff Ten Hag – always hurrying on past the Stretford End – never did.
Van Nistelrooy brought a vastly more commanding physical presence on the touchline, from which he did not depart throughout. He looked the part. His attire – roll neck sweater and trench coat – telegraphed 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 victory, save to say that many of the players looked like they were playing with freedom again. Allowing Leicester two goals was a reminder of the weaknesses that have blighted Ten Hag’s time at the club.
For perspective, it should be said that Ryan Giggs also enjoyed a first game as interim manager which hinted that a permanent future in Ferguson’s seat might actually be his.
That was April 27, 2014 – another of the many landmarks on United’s wretched road to rekindling former glories – when his side beat Norwich City 4-0 at Old Trafford. After an indifferent first half, Giggs gave a pep-talk. ‘I just said quicken up the tempo and it’ll be ok,’ he said after the game.
By the end of the match, he and Paul Scholes, alongside him in the dug-out that day, were taking it in turns to ‘give us a wave’ and Ferguson’s claim that his former winger should be given the job permanently began to make sense. Instead, United turned to Louis van Gaal and in 2016, after Jose Mourinho’s appointment, Giggs left.
Van Nistelrooy cut an animated and commanding figure on the touchline on Wednesday
Ryan Giggs also won his first match as interim boss in 2014, but Van Nistelrooy is not the rookie his former team-mate was
Van Nistelrooy’s swansong is set to continue for three more matches before Ruben Amorim is expected to become United’s next permanent manager
Van Nistelrooy is not the rookie coach that Giggs was. It is thought that he was offered the Burnley job this summer, having fitted a profile similar to Vincent Kompany for Turf Moor, and turned it down. The Lancashire club have always said that Scott Parker was their first choice, though on pre-season tour with United this summer, Van Nistelrooy suggested it the Burnley position was one of a number of options available to him.
Van Nistelrooy’s United swansong looks like it will be brief, with three more games against Chelsea, PAOK Salonika and then Leicester in the league before Portuguese Ruben Amorim’s arrival. Whether the 48-year-old is part of that future – which he expressed a wish to be, on Wednesday night – remains to be seen. But he has found the redemption and circularity he was seeking. He provided a reminder, on Wednesday night, that beautiful things can still happen at Old Trafford.
