Should Erik ten Hag be relieved of his duties in the coming weeks/months, it’s plausible that assistant coach Ruud van Nistelrooy takes the reins on an interim basis.
That’s what Manchester United supporters are being led to believe, anyway, and it’s certainly an appointment that would go down better than other candidates said to be in the mix, such as Gareth Southgate.
Van Nistelrooy, perhaps surprisingly, hit pause on his managerial career in the summer in favour of returning to his former club as part of Ten Hag’s coaching staff. In 2022/2023, he enjoyed a successful season in charge of PSV Eindhoven, having previously taken charge of the youth team.
Throughout his time in the dugout, which lasted from March 2022 to May 2023, he guided the side to silverware in the form of the KNVB Cup as well as the Johan Cruyff Shield. He resigned from the position after PSV’s penultimate game of the Eredivisie campaign – where they would eventually finish second – due to ‘insufficient support within the club’, leaving with a record of 34 wins, eight draws and eight losses in the 50 matches he oversaw.
While the talk of him being promoted to United’s first-team coach is purely speculation at the moment, it’d certainly be an intriguing turn of events should the prospect come to fruition.
Paul Scholes has already highlighted one difference between Van Nistelrooy and Ten Hag in terms of signings, claiming that two of Ten Hag’s acquisitions would not have been authorised had his compatriot been given a say.
Scholes: RvN unlikely to have authorised two Ten Hag signings
“Coaches are control freaks. They want to do everything. If you were Ruud watching that, he is maybe thinking, ‘I will take a back seat – I don’t want to get involved in that,’” Scholes began, as cited by Manchester Evening News.
“He also has to be involved in the recruitment side of it, signing a centre-forward. Or two centre-forwards. ‘Ruud, who do you think?’ I am not sure he would have picked [Joshua] Zirkzee (£36.5m). I am not sure he would have picked [Rasmus] Hojlund (£72m). Look, there is probably not a plethora of centre-forwards out there, but you would go consult him, wouldn’t you?”
