Van Nistelrooy’s Leicester appointment must have lower-league bosses fuming – he comes with a red flag or two
RUUD VAN NISTELROOY walking into the Leicester job must have managers further down the leagues tearing their hair out.
This week at the Northwest Football Awards, for example, Dave Challinor of Stockport was named manager of the year ahead of Pep Guardiola.
Now that may be because organisers felt he would probably turn up to get his gong, unlike Guardiola.
Still, two promotions in 2½ years to lift the area’s poor relation from the National League to League One — where they sit fourth — is incredible.
Yet that and a managerial background at Colwyn Bay, AFC Fylde and Hartlepool would sadly never put him on a Premier League club’s radar.
It never does.
Van Nistelrooy was on that radar at the Foxes in the summer after one season managing at PSV Eindhoven before they went for Steve Cooper.
Now after a further four games as interim Manchester United boss and he is in at the King Power and Cooper is out.
To be fair, Michael Carrick did not do too badly on the back of his three games as caretaker at Old Trafford in 2021.
He racked up two wins and a draw and, by the next October, was manager of Middlesbrough.
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Big names excite fans and Van Nistelrooy has one, literally.
At PSV, he won the 2023 Dutch Cup and was runner-up in the league but walked out amid a dispute with the board over lack of backing in the transfer market — an early red flag.
After a year out, this summer he became part of a coaching set-up with Erik ten Hag that oversaw the club’s worst-ever start to a Premier League season.
Then came those four games as caretaker.
Coincidentally, the first was a 5-2 Carabao Cup win over Leicester.
Except it was the Foxes’ second team as Cooper prioritised that weekend’s relegation six-pointer at Ipswich, which they drew 1-1.
Van Nistelrooy followed it with a creditable 1-1 draw against Chelsea, a 2-0 victory over PAOK in the Europa League, then a 3-0 win over — guess who? — Leicester again.
So hardly the most taxing run of games and that draw with Chelsea was an absolute shocker of a game.
Still, he briefly lifted the club and the reception he got from the United faithful obviously struck a chord with the Foxes hierarchy watching from the directors’ box.
That love-in was more to do with his 150 goals for the club way back when, rather than any managerial masterpiece.
At a time when image is everything, however, the Dutchman comes across very well.
Just look at how Lee Carsley was dismissed as a potential England boss because of how he handled the media glare.
If Van Nistelrooy turned on the charm — like he did in his United press conferences — during his interview for the Foxes job, you can see why he got it.
That is not to say the ex-striker, 48, will not do well — as he leans on the experience of working with some greats.
Like the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, who he gave a volley of abuse to when his boss did not bring him on in the 2006 League Cup final.
There is clearly a fiery side to the man.
Worryingly for Foxes chiefs, the story goes that it was not just down to a lack of support from above that saw Van Nistelrooy leave PSV just before the season ended.
Stories in Holland claim there was a player revolt behind the scenes…
If all the paperwork is done, his first game as Foxes gaffer could be at Brentford on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Challinor, 49, is set to host Brackley in the FA Cup.
It seems if he wants to manage in the top flight, he will have to get there with Stockport.